Housebuilder Bellway is allowing staff to start construction work on a small number of plots north of the border but new work is lagging behind the more buoyant southern markets.

Housebuilder Bellway is allowing staff to start construction work on a small number of plots north of the border but new work is lagging behind the more buoyant southern markets.

The company, which is one of the few in the sector not to seek new finance as the housing downturn weighed, told investors yesterday that there has been little change in demand for its homes since March, with first-time buyers struggling to raise deposits and finance.

"Whilst conditions vary from region to region, the southern-based divisions have experienced a marginally stronger market and it is envisaged that turnover in these divisions will be much higher by the year end than the northern-based divisions whose markets still remain fragile, particularly in the Midlands, Yorkshire and north-west England," the company added.

Finance director Alistair Leitch told The Herald: "Scotland started the downturn a little bit late but it is now in the same position as everywhere else. We seem to be bumping along the bottom."

He said however that, despite record cancellation rates, reservation levels for the first five months of 2009 were higher than the last five months of 2008.

The company is on target to meet its full-year target of 4200 home sales by the end of its financial year in July, albeit a level that is 36% down on the year before.

"What we have got we can live off and prices seem to have shown signs of stabilising," Leitch added.

Leitch said that buyers were increasingly unwilling to purchase a property before it had been completed, so the company was authorising some construction so plots would be ready for future buyers.

"Staff are saying if we start these plots today they might be available for September or October'."

But he added that Bellway was typically releasing half as many plots for construction in Scotland than in its more buoyant southern regions.

Anlaysts say that the south of the country will deliver most of Bellway's revenues this year, an unusual outcome for a company that has traditionally been biased towards northern England upwards.

Bellway also sent a message that recent good news for the sector, such as better than expected house price figures, could be followed by a hard few months.

"The summer selling season normally heralds a slow-down in activity and selling homes in the early stages of construction is difficult, given the current lending environment."

Its share price closed down 13.5p, or 2.1%, at 644.5p.