Trading Statement

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) PLC

13 March 2026

 

The Berkeley Group Holdings plc

Trading Update

Period from 1 November 2025 to 28 February 2026

13 March 2026

The Berkeley Group Holdings plc ("Berkeley") today announces its Trading Update covering the period from 1 November 2025 to 28 February 2026.

"As we approach the year-end, Berkeley re-affirms its pre-tax profit guidance of £450 million for this year and a similar level for FY27, along with our target for a strong net cash position of around £300 million.  This reflects the settlement of over £250 million of land creditors, shareholder returns of around £190 million in the year to date and investment into Berkeley Living's BTR platform. The actual out-turn will depend upon the pace of future share buy-backs, any new land investment and the phasing of legal completions around the year-end.

The trading environment over this period has remained constrained by the impact on consumer confidence of geo-political events and macro-economic uncertainty. However, sales enquiries remain good and the value of underlying reservations has been recovering towards the levels seen over the summer prior to the pre-Budget hiatus.

The emerging situation in the Middle East is weighing heavily on risk sentiment and we await to see the impact of this on the market. While reaffirming guidance, we are aware of the risk of a further deterioration in macro conditions with the potential for higher inflation in the near term and for interest rates to remain higher for longer. 

In the long term, the outlook for London is positive. It is a global city of tremendous resilience, ingenuity and creative power and these fundamental strengths endure. It is the biggest financial centre in Europe, the second largest in the world and the leading global city for tech HQs over the last five years. It offers security, heritage and innovation in a great time zone and language. For customers with liquidity, the current market dislocation presents a good opportunity to buy. 

We are working hard to counter the challenges we face and we are reviewing our planning consents to enhance and restore margins to the appropriate level to enable moving them into production. We have welcomed the collaborative approach adopted by MHCLG and the GLA in developing its 'Homes for London' package, which contains all the right ingredients to address the viability challenge of today's housing market. Wherever possible, we will seek to apply the spirit of the package to provide the certainty required on our long-term London sites.

We continue to work with the Building Safety Regulator ("BSR") to navigate through its very complex and detailed Gateway 2 process for building control approval.  The poor initial implementation of the BSR has severely impacted the supply of new homes in London and other urban areas and we fully support Government's aspiration that the BSR becomes an enabling regulator as soon as possible. Good progress has been made over the last six months but there is still a long way to go for this to become a reality, with approvals being achieved in the prescribed timeframe the norm, rather than the exception.

Looking beyond 2027, given the macro conditions, market sentiment and the regulatory delays being experienced, Berkeley will focus on cash generation to maintain a strong balance sheet, the quality of profit in the core business and shareholder returns, while optimising our land holdings and delivering our BTR strategy.

Since its interim results, Berkeley has returned £59 million via share buy-backs, which takes the total in the year to £191 million, and £330 million of shareholder returns since we launched our Berkeley 2035 strategy in December 2024 which is ahead of programme."

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For further information please contact:

The Berkeley Group Holdings plc                                                          Novella Communications

R J Stearn / N L Eady                                                                            Tim Robertson

T: 01932 868 555                                                                                   T: 020 3151 7008          

LEI: 2138009OQSSLVVHQAL78

 

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