Berkeley survives a testing second half

Urban regenerator and residential property developer Berkeley delivered another robust set of results, despite a second half that saw a weakening in reservation levels.

Berkeley boosted pre-tax profit by 12.7% to 221.2m in the year to 30 April on a turnover up 17.8% to 1.2bn.

Housebuilding operating margins improved marginally from 18.5% to 18.6%.

But these figures conceal what was a testing second half, particularly in comparison with the second half of the previous year, which was "unexpectedly buoyant", said chairman Roger Lewis.

In the most recent half, reservation levels were down 36%.

However, Lewis noted that reservations last month are ahead of those in June 2002.

Build costs put operating margins under pressure, driven by the continuing skills shortage.

Berkeley had forward sales of 920m at the year end, a drop of 130m on the previous year-end figure.