Bellway profit rises on record number of home sales; warns of 'more pronounced' margin drop

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Bellway reported a rise in profit as the homebuilder sold a record number of homes in the year. The homebuilder warned, however, that the fall in margin would be 'more pronounced' as costs rise.

For the year ended 31 July, pre-tax profit rose by 3.4% to £662.6m and revenue climbed 8.6% to £3.2bn.

The total number of homes sold rose by 5.7% to 10,892 at an average selling price of £291,968, up 2.5% on last year.

In addition to delivering volume growth of 5.7%, the company ended the financial year with a sizeable forward order book of 4,878 homes, up from 4,841 a year earlier, with a value of £1.2bn, up from £1.3m. 'In the new financial year, the one-off benefit to the operating margin from Nine Elms will not be repeated and in addition, in the absence of house price inflation, industrywide build cost pressures will continue to have a moderating effect,' the company said.

'As a result of these combined influences, the reduction to a consistent, underlying operating margin will be more pronounced,' it added.