Berkeley on course to hit £500m profit

Berkeley Group has said it is still on track to post a pretax profit of £500m for the year and honour its commitment to return £280m to its shareholders. The housebuilder added that its strategy remained unchanged in its first update since the death of founder Tony Pidgley in June. Berkeley reported that its levels of production had been more robust than expected despite the difficulties of social distancing on construction sites. Efficiency levels are now at around 90%. The firm added that underlying sales reservations for the first four months of the year were around 20% below last year and remaining forward sales were more than £1.8bn. Sales pricing was higher than anticipated owing to the temporary removal of stamp duty on the first £500,000 sale value of a property and the extension to the Help to Buy scheme. Ahead of its £134.3m September dividend payment, Berkley said it had net cash in excess of £1bn. However, the firm added it was still “very mindful” of the long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly with government support tapering off and the potential for a second wave of the virus, as well as the UK’s departure from the EU at the end of the year.   To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette