Housebuilder Bellway forecasts higher full-year housing revenue

(Reuters) - British housebuilder Bellway Plc <BWY.L> forecast a rise in housing revenue for the full year on Thursday, as it managed to push average selling prices marginally higher in a tough UK market.

The company, which builds everything from one-bedroom apartments to six-bedroom family homes, said it expects housing revenue to rise over 8% to almost 3.2 billion pounds for full-year ended July 31.

Bellway said demand for new homes was underpinned by the government's Help to Buy scheme and low interest rates.

The company is also benefiting from its move to streamline operations. It launched a new house type last year by standardising more and is developing a new construction specification that will help rationalise the number of suppliers it uses.

Bellway reported forward order book of 4,878 homes at July 31 from 4,841 homes in 2018, while average selling price of homes rose 2.5% to 292,000 pounds.

(Reporting by Samantha Machado in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)