HOUSE builder Bellway has secured 75 per cent of its sales target for this year and said it was confident, despite the uncertain UK housing market.

The Newcastle company said it was encouraged by its performance in the past year and was confident of achieving market expectations.

However, chairman Howard Dawe said: "Until the strength of the spring selling season is known, it is difficult to predict how the housing market will unfold."

In October, Bellway announced record profits for the year to July of £218.2m.

The company is not revealing the value of its order book until the release of its interim results next month.

It saw 7,001 completions in the past financial year at an average selling price of £163,800.

Finance director Alistair Leitch said: "There's no certainty, but we have seen year-on-year volume growth for 13 years and hope that will continue.

"It's only week 23 of our financial year, and reaching 75 per cent of our target sales gives us a degree of confidence that we will reach that target." He said the average cost of a Bellway home in the financial year to the end of July was likely to rise to just under £170,000 and that the company would continue to be at the low-cost end of the market.

The number of first-time buyers had fallen from about 25 per cent to 15 per cent during the past two to three years, he said.