LONDON (Reuters) - Bovis Homes <BVS.L> became the latest housebuilder to issue a profit warning on Tuesday, adding to signs of a sharpening slowdown in the housing market and hammering its shares.

The country's fifth-biggest housebuilder by market value said the consequences of the global credit squeeze -- with banks reining in lending, raising mortgage rates and demanding higher deposits from borrowers -- were putting off buyers.

Its comments echoed those late last month from Persimmon (LSE: PSN.L - news) <PSN.L>, the biggest housebuilder by market value, and chime with recent survey evidence suggesting a rapid deterioration in the country's housing market.

HBOS <HBOS.L> said on Friday house prices fell 1.3 percent in April from March and were down 3.7 percent on the year, the steepest annual fall in 15 years.

Bovis said sales reservations had fallen 70 percent in the eight weeks since it released full-year results on March 10 with the total so far in 2008 down 30 percent from the previous year at 1,382 homes.

Chief Executive Malcolm Harris said would-be buyers, particularly those new to the market, were struggling to obtain mortgages. "The spring selling period has been absolutely awful," Harris said.

"Surprisingly, visitor levels have held up, but purchasers keen to buy can't raise mortgages. What we need is for (mortgage) liquidity to come back into the market."

Bovis said it expects full-year sales volume to be "materially lower" than the 20 percent to 30 percent drop it predicted in March, without elaborating.

"The board now expects the group's results for the first half of the year to June 30 will be significantly lower than it had anticipated and that, with ongoing market uncertainties, the outlook for the remainder of 2008 is difficult to predict," the company said.

Landsbanki analyst Simon Brown said he had been expecting a 38 percent decline in first-half earnings per share.

"This now looks to be nearer 55 percent to 15.4 pence," he said, adding: "The dividend may now be under threat."

At 10:53 a.m., Bovis shares were down 4.1 percent at 451.75 pence, valuing the firm at about 539 million pounds.

The stock has fallen almost two-thirds in value over the past year as shares in housebuilders have been hammered by fears that a long-standing housing boom is finally over.

Bovis said it was cutting the prices of some of its homes in areas where competition was fierce, citing apartments in Cardiff Bay, Wales, where it has lopped about 10 percent off the 200,000 pounds price tag.

However, Harris said selling prices in the south of England were holding up.

(Additional reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Louise Ireland and David Hulmes)