Housebuilder Bellway has announced its intention to deliver a target of 11,000 homes after a strong year, according to its latest results.
The company, in its interim results for the year to 31 July, reported gross profit of £574.8m, up from £427.9m in 2015. Revenues increased from £1.8bn to £2.2bn over the same period.
The group said it had been aided by the government’s Help to Buy scheme and would be well placed to hit its target of new homes this year should market conditions remain robust.
Bellway increased the number of homes sold to 8,721 from 7,752 last year. The results also showed that the company had managed to shrug off Brexit and that reservations increased 13% year-on-year in the period after the EU referendum result, despite economic uncertainty.
The huge growth in profits was helped by a £17m one-off profit from the disposal of the vast Barking Riverside development, near London.
Chief executive Ted Ayres said there was still some upward pressure from labour costs, particularly in the south east, where the availability of ground workers, bricklayers and scaffolders remained restricted.
Bellway said it had now factored longer lead in times into build programmes and strong relationships with suppliers were helping to ensure that construction timetables were being met.
Ayres said: “The extent of volume growth this year will depend on whether customer confidence is maintained and strong sales rates continue throughout the autumn and subsequent spring selling seasons.
“From its structure of 19 operating divisions, the group has the capacity to deliver around 11,000 new homes per annum and is well placed to increase this capacity, through the opening of further new divisions, should market conditions remain robust.”
