By Marc Roca

LONDON (Reuters) - The country's biggest housebuilder, Taylor Wimpey (TW.L: Quote, Profile, Research), slumped to a 1.54 billion pound half-year pretax loss as the market for homes dried up and said it has yet to agree a crucial loan deal with its banks.

The loss was accounted for by writedowns on the value of its land bank and its brand value, and it scrapped its interim dividend.

Its shares, which have crumbled over 75 percent this year, were 5.77 percent lower at 49 pence at 1128 GMT after Britain's biggest housebuilder, as measured by number of homes sold, said it saw no real recovery soon in its main markets.

"The current operating environment in the UK housing market remains very challenging and we do not anticipate any recovery in the short term," it said in a statement, echoing sentiment expressed in the last week by peers Persimmon (PSN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Bovis Homes (BVS.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

"We do not anticipate any material recovery until 2009 at the earliest in the U.S. housing market," it said.

The housing market has ground to a halt due to lower consumer confidence and the drying up of mortgage availability as a result of the credit crunch, leading to a fall of around 10 percent in house prices since last August. Taylor Wimpey also has exposure to the weak Spanish housing sector.

The British Bankers' Association said on Tuesday that mortgage approvals for house purchases remained near a record low in July, around 65 percent lower year-on-year, and said there was no sign yet of a property market recovery.

Taylor Wimpey, formed last year from the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, reported 4.3 million pounds in profit before tax and exceptionals for the six months to end-June, compared with 119.8 million pounds last year and a median consensus of 55.05 million in a Reuters poll.