Housebuilder reports big leaps in profit and revenue

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Bellway is the latest housebuilder to report bumper results, with pre-tax profit and revenue both strongly up in the year to July 2015.

The firm said it enjoyed 鈥渁nother record year鈥, with pre-tax profit up 44% to 拢354.2m, up from 拢246m, while revenue rose 18.9% to 拢1.8bn, up from 拢1.5bn.

As Bellway indicated , the firm鈥檚 operating margin topped 20%, hitting 20.4%, up from 17.2% the previous year.

Bellway acknowledged that it faced 鈥渃onstraints鈥 regarding labour shortages and rising material costs due to the booming housing market, but said these were 鈥渂eginning to abate鈥.

The group sold a record 7,752 homes, up 13.2% on 6,851 homes the previous year.

Bellway spent 拢620m over the period on land opportunities to increase its land holdings to 36,211 plots.

Its order book at the start of the 2015-16 financial year stood at 拢1.1bn, representing 4,568 homes, up from 拢924m, representing 4,363 homes.

Chairman John Watson (pictured) said: 鈥淏ellway has produced another outstanding set of results, completing a record number of new homes, whilst simultaneously making a record investment in land and opening a further two new divisions in the last twelve months.

鈥淏ellway is well positioned to continue delivering its strategy for growth, investing in high quality locations and delivering further sustainable returns for shareholders.

鈥淭he outlook remains positive and the strength of the forward order book should enable the Group to achieve volume growth of up to 10% in the current financial year.鈥