24th Jun 2026 08:44
(Alliance News) - Berkeley Group Holdings PLC on Wednesday praised the UK government's work in restoring the "fundamentals of housing policy", but urged further reform as it posted a slight profit beat in its annual results.
The Surrey, England-based housebuilder reported pretax profit of GBP451.4 million in the financial year that ended April 30, down 15% from GBP528.9 million a year prior. In March, the company had reaffirmed its full-year target of GBP450 million in pretax profit.
Driving the softer earnings was a 4.2% top-line contraction, as revenue fell to GBP2.38 billion from GBP2.49 billion.
The company noted this included GBP2.27 billion of residential revenue, down from GBP2.43 billion, as well as GBP110.4 million of commercial revenue, up from GBP14.8 million. The company also reported GBP7.7 million of land sales, down from GBP39.5 million.
Berkeley Group said it completed 4,076 new homes across London and the South East during the financial year, up 0.7% from 4,047. The company noted this was at an average selling price of GBP546,000, down 7.9% from GBP593,000.
The company reported GBP233.0 million in shareholders returns for the financial year, down 39% from GBP381.5 million a year prior. All of this GBP233 million was returned via buybacks, while the prior year GBP129.7 million was via buybacks, GBP183.8 million was through special dividends and GBP68.0 million was through dividends paid.
The company reported a closing net asset value per share of GBP39.17 at April 30, up 9.0% from GBP35.95 a year earlier.
Berkeley Group said it determined to play a "full part" in the UK government's housing and growth mission, but noted that given the "deteriorating" macroeconomic backdrop, "there is now a clear case for further government action beyond the initiatives announced to date."
Executive Chair Rob Perrins said the government "has done an excellent job in restoring the fundamentals of housing policy," but that "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."
Perrins said that stamp duty land tax "should be reduced on all new homes to a maximum of 3% [zero for first-time-buyers] and the SDLT surcharges that deter the vital investment in new build homes so damagingly should be removed."
Shares in Berkeley Group were trading 5.3% higher at 3,628.00 pence on Wednesday morning in London.
Commenting on the year's trading, Perrins said: "This robust performance, which is in line with guidance, reflects the focused execution of our Berkeley 2035 strategy, disciplined cost control and our agile response to extremely challenging macro-economic and regulatory conditions.
"We delivered 4,203 good green homes within the most under-supplied regions of the UK, with 90% built on underused brownfield land within designated regeneration areas. Our projects contributed GBP530 million in subsidies to deliver affordable housing and commitments to wider infrastructure and community benefits this year. Few business models deliver this level of public good"
By Christopher Ward, Alliance News reporter
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