Berkeley posted a moderately downbeat summer trading statement this week, reporting a 20% drop in August reservations compared with the same month in 2015.
This was in line with the first five months of the year, which the company said were also down 20% year-on-year. As a result it had been “selective in the land market, acquiring just two sites” between the start of May and the end of August.
Berkeley, the most London-focused of the housebuilders, was one of a trio of companies in the sector to report this week, which together provided a mixed outlook.
Steve Morgan, chairman of Redrow, was at pains to point out in the company’s full-year results to end of June that the company had minimal exposure to central London when reporting a 23% year-on-year rise in profits to £261m.
Its order book was up by 54% to £807m, while its contracted land bank was up by 43% at 26,000 plots.
Barratt saw profits rise by 21% year-on-year to £682m in its full-year results to the end of June. The housebuilder said it was encouraged by a recovery in post referendum sales in July and August and that it was “business as usual”.
Forward sales of homes rose by 4.1% year-on-year in the first nine weeks of the financial year.
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