Berkeley FY profits meet guidance, calls for 'strong political leadership' on housing

(Sharecast News) - Berkeley Group reported a drop in full-year profit that met its guidance on Wednesday as it called for "strong political leadership" on housebuilding and warned that London was on track to miss targets. In the year to the end of April, pre-tax profit fell 14.7% to £451.4m, in line with Berkeley's guidance of £450m, with revenue down 4.2% at £2.4bn.

The company called it a "resilient operating performance in a volatile environment".

Berkeley said 4,076 new homes were completed across London and the South East, up from 4,047 a year earlier, although the average selling price dipped to £546,000 from £593,000. Cash due on forward sales fell to £1bn from £1.4bn.

Net cash came in at £363m, up from £337m in 2025 and well ahead of the company's guidance for £300m.

Berkeley said the current high tax and regulatory burden meant London was building less than 10% of the homes it needs. It also pointed out that it now takes at least eight years to complete an apartment building in the capital from the point of acquisition, versus five years ten years ago.

Executive chair Rob Perrins said: "Every part of the system needs to work to reduce the time taken to get buildings into development and allow homebuilders to make a return commensurate with the risk that can attract the necessary investment capital. Currently more homes are being lost to other uses than being built. This can be addressed with the necessary policy changes and strong political leadership."

He said Stamp Duty Land Tax should be reduced on all new homes to a maximum of 3% - zero for first-time-buyers - and the surcharges that deter the vital investment in new build homes "so damagingly" should be removed.

"These changes will be fiscally neutral or better due to the considerable increase in tax revenues generated from greater transactional activity and by stimulating additional homebuilding which drives corporation tax (which is 29% on all residential property developers' profits) and payroll taxes (direct and throughout the supply chain)," Perrins said.

At 0813 BST, the shares were up 5.1% at 3,622.20p.

See latest RNS on Investegate