Bellway bounds ahead

And the buoyant trend shows no sign of running out of steam. Reservations in the six months to January averaged 137 per week - a rise of 41 per cent over the year before - while the forward order book in March was up 64 per cent at £830m. This equates to 3,944 homes, against 2,746 a year earlier. In fact, the group now expects to deliver volume growth of up to 20 per cent in the current year.

Average selling prices rose 13 per cent to £212,071 last year, thanks mainly to a shift in output to the more prosperous south of England. The number of houses sold jumped 25 per cent to 3,245 from 225 sites, with the proportion of sales generated by the group's eight southern divisions rising from 58 per cent to 62 per cent of the group total.

Bellway also increased land expenditure from £145m to £240m, lifting the total number of plots owned or controlled from 32,991 to 34,057 - equivalent to 5.2 years of output at current rates. Operational efficiency and strong cost control, meanwhile, helped to lift operating margins from 12.8 per cent to 15.6 per cent, which boosted the closely-watched return on capital employed figure from 10.5 per cent to 17.1 per cent.

Following upgrades, analysts at Numis Securities expect full-year pre-tax profits of £225m and EPS of 144p (from £141m and 89.3p in 2013).