It is believed bankers at UBS are drawing up plans for a share placing with institutional investors such as Standard Life, Scottish Wid­ows and Legal & General so builders such as Barratt Developments, Taylor Wim­pey and Redrow can avoid rights issue fund­raisings.

The plan follows buy-to-let lender Bradford & Bingley’s recent move to sell a 23 per cent stake in the business to private equity firm TPG as part of a £400million rescue deal.

UBS building analyst Mark Stockdale raised the prospect of strategic investors buying into housebuilders as an alternative to issuing new shares.

However, he ruled out debt-for-equity swaps, despite growing fears that Barratt, for example, could breach its banking covenants.

Housebuilders’ market values have plummeted due to worries about falling sales and prices as well as big writedowns on land values.

Investors’ concerns over share prices falling further as a result of rights issues have been heightened by recent cash calls from banking giants Royal Bank of Scot­land and HBOS.

Stockdale said: “We believe the market is concerned either by the potential scale of equity issues or by something worse — bankruptcy of debt-for-equity swaps.”