Bellway PLC (LON:BWY) sold a record number of houses and flats in its latest half-year, although it said the pace will ease over the second half.
The FTSE 250 housebuilder completed deals on 5,656 homes in the six months to end-January, an increase of 6.3% over the same time a year ago.
Revenues rose by more than 12% to £1.72bn, helped by both the rise in completions and a 5.8% rise in the average sale price to £303,200.
Some of this inflation was temporary, Bellway said, and over the full year, average sale prices are expected to revert back to around £293,000.
Private house orders over the interim period rose by 1.3% to 156 per week and at the end of the half stood in total at 5,889 worth £1.63bn.
For the full year to end July 2021, Bellway said it now expects to sell around 9,800 houses while underlying profit margins are expected to rise about 2 percentage points.
Bellway added it is still assessing developments where fire safety and cladding did not meet the most recent guidelines and is in talks with owners to seek a solution.
In its last annual results, Bellway took a £46.8mln exceptional charge for remedial fire safety repairs in apartment blocks and said today it will update further with the interim numbers.
Jason Honeyman, chief executive, said: “Sales rates were more pronounced at the start of the financial year, given the pent-up demand arising from the Spring national 'lockdown'.
“The reservation rate slowed during November, as the sector transitioned to the new Help-to-Buy rules and more widespread 'lockdown' measures were reintroduced.
“Despite the escalation of these 'lockdown' measures in the new calendar year, sales rates have since recovered to a more normalised level, boosted by the effective transition to the new Help-to-Buy scheme, which has been well received by our customers.”
Net cash at the end of the half-year was £346mln.