For the six months ended 31 January 2014 Bellway made housing revenue of £690m (2013: £486.7m), thanks to both higher volumes (up 25%) and higher selling prices (up 13%).
It attributed the pick-up in the market to easier access to affordable mortgage finance, largely driven by the Help to Buy scheme.
Bellway legally completed the sale of 3,245 homes during the six months, up 25% on last year’s figure.
When Bellway reports its interim results next month it expects to show an operating margin in excess of 15%.
Bellway spent £240m on land during the half-year, bringing the total investment in land to almost £1.4bn since 2008. “Whilst there is growing competition for land in some areas of the country, the number of opportunities to acquire land has also increased,” it said.
The company has booked an average of 137 reservations per week (2013: 97) in the period since 1 August, an increase of 41%, from an average of 224 outlets (2013: 215). The order book at 31 January stood at 3,836 units (2013: 2,467), representing an increase in value of almost 73% to £783m (2013: £453m).
The board said that it expects legal completions to increase by more than 15% for the full financial year.
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