Feb 15 (Reuters) - British low-cost housebuilder MJ Gleeson said on Thursday there were positive signs of demand recovery and it expected the trend to spill into the upcoming key spring selling season amid easing mortgage rates.

The British housing market has seen signs of stability in recent weeks on the back of a drop in mortgage rates, while builders have remained cautious amid macro-economic worries and a lack of clarity over the Bank of England's monetary policy path.

Gleeson CEO Graham Prothero said the group's land business continued to see strong interest from a range of both large and regional developers.

Net booking rates were 0.50 homes in the five weeks to Feb.9, compared with 0.46 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Last week, midcap homebuilder Bellway too had

pointed to

easing affordability concerns and improved booking rates in recent weeks, while affordable homebuilder Vistry in January had

struck

a more optimistic tone than its sector peers.

Gleeson said group pre-tax profit more than halved to 7.2 million pounds ($9 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31.

($1 = 0.7964 pounds) (Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sohini Goswami)