Property developer Berkeley on track to hit targets despite ‘volatile’ trading environment 
Property developer Berkeley said it was on track to meet its performance targets today despite a “volatile” trading environment continuing to ramp up costs and put pressure on the firm’s supply chain.
Bosses said they expected forward sales to be above £1.7bn when they report full year results, while net cash is forecast to be around £900m, above the £846m the firm reported at its half-year update in October.
The firm said it had a been a strong performance for the firm since it last updated the city on in October.
“Berkeley has continued to trade robustly since its half year, with the value of underlying sales reservations remaining slightly ahead of pre-pandemic levels,” the firm said in a trading statement today.
“Cancellations are at normal rates and sales pricing is sufficiently ahead of business plan to absorb construction cost increases.”
But it warned that inflationary headwinds and volatility in the trading environment were posing the firm a number of challenges.
“For Berkeley, this is most immediately evident through continuing inflationary pressure and supply chain constraints, planning complexity and delays, the uncertainty associated with the combined efforts of the industry and Government to address concerns around the safety of people living in tall buildings and the developing implications of the tragic situation in Ukraine,” the firm said.
Berkeley said it had bolstered it bank facilities to £800m which has topped up total debt facilities to £1.2bn, including the fimr’s 10-year Green Bonds issued in August 2021.
Shareholders are now in line for £141m cash return for the six months ended 30 September 2022, of which the firm has already rolled out £35m has been pumped into a share buyback scheme.