黑洞社区

Volume housebuilder Bellway has said it is on course to build around 11,000 homes this year following an 鈥渋mproved鈥� level of reservations since New Year.

However, this improvement follows a huge drop-off in demand in the wake of the mini-Budget in September, which Bellway said in a half-year trading update today have seen private reservations since July fall by 44% on the previous year.

黑洞社区 11,000 homes would be a reduction on the 11,198 built by Bellway last year, and is slightly below its estimate when it last updated the market, in October shortly after the mini-Budget, when it said it volume output would most likely be 鈥渟imilar to the prior year鈥�.

Prior to the mini-Budget, Bellway had been expecting to deliver 10% volume growth in the current financial year, to July 31 2023.

The firm said today that its overall reservation rate had reduced by just 32% to 138 homes per week, 鈥渨ith weaker private demand partially offset by the Group鈥檚 programme of accelerating the construction of social homes.鈥�

It said: 鈥淰isitor numbers and reservation rates in January have improved from the levels in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2022鈥�, and that if this was sustained through the spring, the group would deliver full year volume output of around 11,000 homes.

Bellway said the private reservations fell to 91 homes per week overall, compared to 162 in the previous year, but have recovered to 107 per week in January, albeit the comparative figure for last year was 195.

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Bellway鈥檚 volume figures are boosted by its delivery of 鈥渞ecord鈥� completions in the first half of the year, despite weakening reservation rates, with 5,695 completions reported 鈥� one more than in 2021.

The firm said the size its forward order book had reduced by 23% to 5,108 homes, with the value of the orders down by 29% to 拢1.39bn.

Bellway said it bought just 2,428 plots in the period, nearly three quarters down on the 8660 plots bought in first half of the year in the previous year, reflecting 鈥渁 more cautious approach towards land investment.鈥� It said it walked away from the purchase of three previously agreed plots totalling 418 plots.

The firm said that while still lower than January 2022, it had been 鈥渆ncouraged鈥� by visitor numbers at outlets in January, which were 鈥渟ignificantly ahead of the levels in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2022鈥�. It added that 鈥渨ebsite traffic and enquiries have also been strong, providing some grounds for optimism for the spring selling season鈥�, while headline pricing has 鈥渞emained robust鈥�, albeit, 鈥渢argeted incentives鈥� were being used in some instances to secure reservations.

The firm said it will report revenue for the half year of 拢1.8bn, up from 拢1.78bn last year.

Bellway said it was reviewing the terms of the recently published contract underpinning the government鈥檚 鈥渄eveloper pledge鈥� to fix fire safety issues on its existing buildings, and did not anticipate making any further financial provisions related to it.