The business issued a trading update for the six months ending January 31 2022 and said that although the figure was only slightly up on the 5,656 homes of the equivalent period last year, completions had benefitted from pent-up demand and “elevated construction progress”. Bellway also said it expected its housing revenue to lift by more than 3% to around £1,775 million.
Its overall reservation rate during the period rose 5.8% to 202 per week against H1 2021, with the average weekly private reservation rate improving 3.8% to 162. This was done from an average of 247 outlets compared to last year’s 278. Bellway said some sites had traded out earlier than expected due to the strong sales rate experienced.
During the six months, the housebuilder’s average selling price increased 2.8% to £311,800. This is now expected to be higher than previous guidance for the full year at more than £300,000.
Bellway noted that the use of Help to Buy on its sales had dropped to 18% of total reservations compared to 41% last year.
The firm also pointed to its “substantial” order book, comprising 6,628 homes (2021 - 5,889 homes), with a value of £1,940.9 million (2021 - £1,625.3 million).
Bellway also said that in addition to setting aside £164.7 million between 2017 and July 31 2021 to address legacy building safety issues, it had completed or was currently undertaking remediation work on buildings of 11 to 18 metres and above. It pointed out that this was being done at no cost to residents, regardless of whether Bellway retains ownership of the freehold of the building and had been a “complex exercise”.
Jason Honeyman, Bellway’s CEO, said: "Bellway has delivered a strong first-half performance, achieving record volume output and housing revenue, notwithstanding the wider economic challenges presented by labour, material and fuel shortages and Covid-19 related absenteeism."
