Berkeley holds guidance despite 34% slump in reservations

(Sharecast News) - UK housebuilder Berkeley on Friday reaffirmed full-year earnings guidance but said private sales reservations were down 35% due to rising interest rates and political volatility. In a trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting, the group said it expected to deliver pre-tax profits of at least £1.05bn across the current and next financial years; likely to be weighted slightly to full-year 2024.

Berkeley said it had more than 90% of full-year 2024 revenue exchanged and anticipated cash due on forward sales to be around £2bn at October 31, 2023 compared with £2.14bn at the end of April.

It also revealed it had not acquired any land in the period and would only invest "very selectively" in new opportunities due to what it called

the "complexity and protracted nature of the current planning system and lack of clarity surrounding certain regulatory changes".

These issues continued to deter investment into brownfield regeneration and the wider housebuilding sector, "at a time of considerable uncertainty for the UK economy with persistent high inflation and interest rates".

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com