* Private legal completions up 18 percent in H1 to 738
* Sees writedowns on small number of sites
* Eyeing land acquisitions
* Sees possible further pressure on prices in H2
* Shares down 0.3 percent (Adds details, CEO, analyst comment, share price)
By Lorraine Turner
LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - Britain's Bovis Homes Group Plc said reservations had risen in the first half but echoed comments from peers that house buying activity remained capped by a tight mortgage market, dashing hopes of a near-term sector recovery.
"Activity has to increase before we can start to think about the housing market in general becoming a more stable place," Bovis Chief Executive David Ritchie told Reuters on Friday.
Net private reservations jumped 92 percent to 901 in the six months to end June compared with the previous year and private completions rose 18 percent, though this was offset by a decline in social housing completions, Bovis said.
Completed sales overall fell 11 percent to 754 homes and Bovis said net sale prices, which fell 18 percent in the first half, will continue to weigh on margins and gross profits.
A more positive spring selling season and pent-up demand has helped lift shares in British housebuilders by some 12 percent since the end of last year, as home buyers slowly return to the market.
But indications of a permanent recovery in the sector, with houses losing a fifth of their value since the start of the downturn, are yet to emerge as major players such as Barratt Developments Plc gave cautious trading updates this week.
Ritchie said prices, which have begun to stabilise in recent months, may fall further in the rest of the year. "Pricing is still, at best stable ... There is potential for further downside on pricing in the second half, we've got some uncertainty over unemployment."
Bovis said price stabilisation and lower debt, reduced to 14 million pounds ($23 million), will enable it to pursue land investments and ramp up of building activity in the second half.
Bovis shares, which had risen 5 percent earlier this week, were down 0.3 percent at 393-3/4 pence by 0925 GMT.
LOOK FORWARD
A 10-year boom in Britain's housing market began slowing in summer 2007 before the global credit crunch choked off the supply of cheap and easy money that had helped triple prices in a decade.
But indications of price and volume stabilisation in the second quarter of the year have enabled some builders to start planning for the recovery. Bovis said it will deliver a first-half underlying profit based on aggressive cost-cutting and is going into the market looking for land.
"We clearly now have ability to look forward to the second half of the year with firepower to invest," said Ritchie.
The builder will meet its full-year volume targets of 1,800 units, if activity continues at the same rate, it added.
Analysts at brokerage Panmure Gordon said: "The business is well placed to exit the slowdown and take advantage of attractive land opportunities which may occur."
The positive trend of house price stabilisation is backed up by data from major lenders. Halifax said on Wednesday house prices only fell 0.5 percent in June against an annual decline of 12.5 percent, the slowest since last July.
Bovis, one of the smaller UK housebuilders by market value, said it may take writedowns on a "small number of specific sites" at the half year. (Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.6224 Pound)