The booming London property market helped profits at housing developer Berkeley Group jump 30 per cent over the last year, the company said today.

Berkeley's pre-tax profits in the year to April reached £143.6 million, up from £110.4 million last year.

Recent successes include the sale of nearly every flat in an as yet unbuilt Brighton seafront development.

But the company said demand for housing was beginning to moderate after the increase in stamp duty following this year's Budget and rises in interest rates.

Turnover for the group was £799 million, up from £697 in 1999, and the company sold 2,915 homes during the year, compared with 2,825 last year.

The average sale price for a new home rose during the year from £232,000 to £251,000, the company said.

Major regeneration programmes at London's Woolwich Royal Arsenal, Deptford and Chelsea Bridge Wharf also helped to boost the figures.

Other important developments for the group during the year included a 1,665-unit site on the River Thames at Fulham's Imperial Wharf and a one million sq ft development at St George Wharf, Vauxhall Bridge.

The group has also secured planning permission for two hospital sites, at Knowle Hospital, near Winchester, and Warlingham Park Hospital, Surrey.

The company now has 90 per cent of its land holdings on brown field sites.

Berkeley Group chairman Roger Lewis said: "Berkeley is now one of the major contributors to the renaissance of Britain's city and town centres.

"The group is no longer a traditional housebuilder, but a developer concentrating mainly on residential developments in city and town centres, allied to mixed use schemes."