Housebuilder increases profit 3% to £220m but says that most sales required incentives

Housebuilder Bellway put in a solid set of results posting rises in pre-tax profit, house sales and land bank but it warned that the house market remained challenging in most parts of the country.

Pre-tax profit grew 3.2% to £220.7m for the twelve months to 31 July from a turnover of £1.24bn giving the housebuilder a margin of 18%. Net asset value per share grew to 793p from 689p, a rise of 15.1%.

The number of homes sold rise to 7,117 up from 7,001 the previous year but chairman Howard Dawe warned that “although some parts of the country have shown resilience, notably in the North East, Scotland and the Thames Gateway, the rest of the country remains challenging and, as a consequence, incentives are still required to conclude most transactions.”

Bellway’s landbank nudged up slightly to 22,600 up from 22,5000.

Chief executive John Watson said that Bellway’s order book had grown to £647m by the end of September and that it was a good position to maintain its track record.

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