UK Property Market Stabilises – Berkeley

On Wednesday, September 9th, the Berkeley Group – British housebuilder – announced that according to its information property markets of South England and London are stable; Berkeley also said that the stability of markets is the reason why it has purchased several new sites lately. Let us remind that earlier this summer (in June, particularly), the Berkley Group claimed that it saw signs of recovery of the British housing. Currently, Berkeley says that the levels of cancellation are normal as well as forward sales are (the company manages to maintain them at the level of £600 million). According to Berkeley’s spokesman, the company’s board has no doubts that it will be able to keep operating margins within the historic range because Berkeley’s performance as well as its land bank proved to be extremely strong in the first 4 months of 2009. The board also believes that Berkley’s overall performance in the course of 2009 will not differ from the expectations of its management. At the end of August 2009, Berkeley said its balance sheet is strong; the company’s net cash flow amounted to more than £300 million; moreover, Berkeley’s belief in the recovery of the UK property sector is so strong that it does not expect any write-downs on its land bank value. The Berkeley Group, as it was already mentioned, has agreed the purchase of several new sites in the past 4 months. One of the sites is Johnson House located in Belgravia, London. The shares of the Berkeley Group recently increased by 0.6%, and now stand at 920 pence. As for other British property companies, on Wednesday, A&J Mucklow, a midlands property firm, reported that in its opinion the British market of commercial property has a good potential for capital growth and income, which fact made it attractive to investors again.