(Reuters) -Britain’s Berkeley struck a cautious tone on the near-term demand environment after the high-end homebuilder posted a nearly 8% fall in half-year profit on Friday, as affordability concerns continue to weigh on sentiment in the sector.
The British housing sector has been marked by caution in recent months due to concerns about the slowing pace of the UK interest rate reductions and build cost inflation.
“Whilst we have seen a slight uptick in recent weeks, a meaningful recovery will require a sustained improvement in consumer confidence and stability in the wider macroeconomic environment,” CEO Rob Perrins said in a statement.
Berkeley, which unlike its bigger rivals, focuses on redeveloping land that was previously used for industrial purposes, said there was a “slight improvement” in sales in recent weeks and reiterated a pre-tax profit forecast of 525 million pounds ($669.3 million) for the year ending April 30.
The company, which operates across London, Birmingham and the south of England, said half-year pre-tax profit came in at 275.1 million pounds compared with 298 million pounds a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7844 pounds)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Eileen Soreng)
