Bellway doubles profit as it plans for growth

Bellway has doubled its profit over the past year, as revenue rose by 40%. The housebuilder earned £479m in the year to the end of July, up from £236.7m in 2019/20. It said it expected profit to exceed £1.25bn over the next two years. Revenue rose to £3.12bn, far ahead of 2020’s £2.2bn and within 3% of 2019’s record £3.2bn. Operating margin rose to 17% from 14.5%, with Bellway confident it would be north of 18% in the medium term. Housing completions rose by 35% to 10,138, again just shy of 2019 levels, while reservations were up 20% and ahead of 2019 levels. Bellway said it had launched a £1bn, early re-entry into the land market, buying 19,819 plots over the year, compared with around 12,000 in 2020 and 13,000 in 2019. It hopes to use the pipeline to increase output by 20% to 12,200 homes in 2023, and to 18,000 homes shortly after. The housebuilder’s forward order book stands at just under £2bn. It has set aside £51.8m to fix cladding issues. Bellway has also built up its cash position to £330m, from just £1.4m last year, along with debt facilities of £500m.   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews