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Berkeley insists housing market will remain stable
One of the UK’s largest house builders has insisted that the housing market will remain stable in spite of short-term “market dislocations”.
The Berkeley Group, which delivers more than 10% of London’s homes, issued a trading update today for the period from 1 November last year to 28 February.
In the update, it said: “The trading environment for Berkeley remains consistent with that experienced over the last two years.
“This stability allows Berkeley to reiterate the updated pre-tax profit guidance it provided with its interim results in December 2018 for this, and the next two years, which represented an increase of around 8% in the guidance for the current year.”
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The relatively positive update comes during an uncertain time for house builders and housing associations, especially those building for market sale in London and the South East, as the scheduled date for Brexit draws nearer.
Associations in the capital last month warned of a “massive slowdown” in the London sales market as Inside Housing revealed that one large organisation had more than 400 unsold homes on its books.
Berkeley itself has frequently warned of the worsening market conditions in its key areas of London and the South East over the last year.
In March last year, it said that it was unable to increase its building of new homes as much as it would like, because of market conditions.
Three months later, it said that government interventions were having “little impact” in those regions thanks to “a number of headwinds” constraining the market.
In September last year, it said that uncertainty around Brexit meant that the London housing market was “constrained”.
Today’s update, however, noted: “While very mindful of the potential for short-term market dislocations from the current political backdrop, we remain steadfast in our belief in the long-term resilience and attraction of our markets of London, Birmingham and the South East.”
