IN Brief:
- Bellway increased annual housing completions by 10.8% to 9,695 homes.
- Revenue and cash generation rose, while reservation rates and the forward order book weakened.
- The housebuilder is taking a selective approach to land investment as demand remains softer.
Bellway increased housing completions by 10.8% to 9,695 homes in the year to 31 July 2026, beating its previous guidance despite softer customer demand and a more selective approach to land investment.
The housebuilder had expected to deliver between 9,300 and 9,500 homes. The eventual outperformance was driven principally by conversion of bulk sales, while private completions remained 79% of total output, unchanged from the previous financial year.
Housing revenue rose by more than 13% to approximately £3.14 billion from £2.77 billion, and underlying operating profit is expected to reach about £320 million. That compares with £303.5 million previously, although the adjusted operating margin is expected to fall from 10.9% to around 10% because a greater proportion of output came through lower-margin bulk transactions.
The average selling price increased to approximately £324,000 from £316,412. Bellway attributed the movement to geographical and product mix rather than underlying house-price inflation, while average incentive use increased from 4.1% to about 5%.
Those figures leave a clear difference between physical output and future demand. Bellway completed more homes and generated more revenue, but private reservations fell by 5.8% to an average of 131 per week from 139 in the previous year.
The private reservation rate per outlet, including bulk sales, reduced from 0.57 to 0.55 per week. Excluding bulk transactions it fell from 0.52 to 0.49, while the overall reservation rate including social housing was 3.5% lower at 165 homes per week.
Trading improved during the early part of the spring selling season before moderating from April as mortgage rates increased. The cancellation rate remained comparatively low at 12%, against 13% in the prior period, but weaker reservations combined with higher completions materially reduced the number of sold homes carried into the new financial year.
The year-end forward order book contained 4,206 homes worth approximately £1.20 billion. A year earlier it stood at 5,307 homes valued at £1.52 billion, leaving the company with less committed sales coverage despite having delivered substantially more units during the year just ended.
For construction planning, that difference matters. Completed homes turn work in progress into revenue and cash, but a smaller order book gives less certainty over the pace at which replacement plots should be released, subcontract packages committed, materials ordered, and new phases moved through the production sequence.
Bellway is responding with selective land acquisition rather than assuming the higher completion figure justifies immediate expansion. It contracted to purchase 8,578 owned and controlled plots during the year, up from 8,120, but those plots were spread across only 35 sites compared with 51 a year earlier.
The contract value of those land purchases fell from £567 million to £505 million. One particularly large transaction involved about 1,900 plots within the Dunfermline Strategic Development Area, converted from Bellway’s strategic land bank and intended to support the group’s two Scottish divisions.
The broader strategic land bank contains around 48,000 plots, more than half of which have a positive planning status. Bellway’s medium-term aim is to generate more than 20% of housing output from strategically sourced land, increasing the importance of converting longer-held sites through planning rather than depending entirely on shorter-term market purchases.
Cash generation improved markedly during the year. Adjusted operating cashflow exceeded £850 million, compared with £638.9 million previously and ahead of Bellway’s £750 million to £800 million guidance, while year-end net cash increased from £41.8 million to £157.7 million.
The stronger balance sheet gives the group room to continue investing through a weaker sales period, although capital allocation remains controlled. Bellway spent £496 million on land, including land-creditor payments, and is completing a £150 million share buyback before beginning a further £50 million programme.
For contractors and suppliers, the more important relationship is between completions, reservations, and land. A housebuilder producing almost 9,700 homes still supports substantial volumes of groundworks, structures, roofing, mechanical and electrical packages, finishes, external works, and materials procurement, but future package release depends on sales absorbing that output at a sustainable rate.
Bellway has also pointed to renewed build-cost inflation alongside the prospect of a longer period of subdued customer demand. That combination puts pressure on site productivity and procurement because cost control has to be maintained without compromising building-safety obligations, specification, or the construction quality expected across the existing pipeline.
A smaller order book can also change sequencing on individual developments. Sites may remain active but progress through phases more cautiously, with infrastructure, plot starts, and subcontract commitments aligned more closely to reservations rather than pushing production ahead of demand.
Bellway will provide detailed guidance for the 2027 financial year with its full-year results on 13 October. Until then, the latest numbers describe a market in which construction output can still rise sharply while future sales visibility weakens — a combination likely to keep land buying, plot release, and production decisions under close control.
