Property developer and housebuilder, Berkeley Group pulled off a 0.9 per cent revenue increase in a year it described as “sluggish”.
The Surrey-based company published its accounts for the year to 30 April 2025, which saw its revenue increase to £2.48 billion (FY2024: £2.46 billion) with pre-tax profits of £528.9 million (FY2024: £557.3 million).
The majority of its revenue came from its residential projects – £2.43 billion (FY2024: £2,395.7 billion), while £14.8 million came from commercial (FY2024: £47.2 million), and £39.5 million came from land sales (2024: £21.4 million).
Its operating profit came in at £500 million, increasing 4.2 per cent from £479.7 million in 2024.
Rob Perrins, chief executive at Berkeley, said build costs had remained stable over the course of the year with the supply chain bearing the brunt of rising costs.
“The sluggish domestic economic backdrop, with low housebuilding and wider construction activity, is leading subcontractors to absorb underlying inflationary pressure on materials and labour within their tender pricing,” he said.
“As we look forward, Berkeley expects this dynamic to continue as subcontractors place value on securing the forward orders in a weak market.”
Looking ahead more than 75 per cent of sales has been secured, with the firm “well-placed” to achieve its FY26 pre-tax profit guidance of £450 million.
Perrins, who succeeds group chairman Michael Dobson in September, added its “highly disciplined execution and close control of costs” had resulted in long-term value being added to the business in the form of further land holdings and its build to rent (BTR) platform.
He welcomed the government’s planning reforms, including improvements to the Building Safety Regulator’s new Gateway approval system and increased funding for the affordable housing sector.
It acquired three new sites in the year, and was selected as a partner of the 148-acre Ladywood estate by Birmingham City Council for its regeneration and delivery of more than 7,500 new and refurbished homes.
“There is good underlying demand for our homes, with transaction volumes gradually improving over the course of the year. However, consumer confidence remains finely balanced and a more meaningful recovery requires both improved sentiment and macroeconomic stability,” he said.
In its report, Berkeley acknowledged it was one of the firms being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for anti-competitive sharing of information in the housebuilding industry, stating it continued to “cooperate with the CMA and its enquiries”.
This continues until at least August.
It returned £381.5 million to its shareholders ahead of the business starting its new 10-year strategy.
This is underpinned by a capital allocation framework that identifies £7 billion of free cash flow to deploy over the next 10 years to drive value in land investment, existing BTR, and shareholder returns.
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