HOUSEBUILDER Bellway has seen resilient demand during the spring selling season and operating margins continue to rise.

The Newcastle-based company is seeing a continuing recovery in its business with visitor levels and reservations running ahead of expectations.

From February to May Bellway has seen reservations up 9% to average 122 a week compared with last year and private weekly sales are up 19%.

The company is confident of beating its target of 5% volume growth and it said that it should top last year's completion rate by around 300 sales.

It has seen the average selling price on its reserved houses since the start of February up 5% to £190,000 partly as more upmarket homes are sold in London.

And the company is now confident of seeing an operating margin of at least 11% for this year.