Housebuilder Berkeley to halt buying new land and hiring staff

Group cuts costs as shares plunge while it grapples with impact of Iran war on property market One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders has said it will stop buying new land and hiring new staff, as it grapples with the impact of the Iran war on the property market. The London-focused housebuilder Berkeley said it would cut costs as it warned that “geopolitical volatility” and reduced potential for interest rate cuts could weigh on the business. The FTSE 100 company said it would stop buying new land, implement a hiring freeze and employ fewer subcontractors. The group now expects to report more than £1.4bn in pre-tax profit from 2027 to 2030, compared with an earlier forecast for about £450m this year and in 2027. Shares in the company plunged as much as 18% on Wednesday morning, making it the worst performer across the FTSE 100. They later recovered some ground, down nearly 13%. Berkeley said: “In the first two months of 2026, we had begun to see signs of a modest recovery in sales volumes. However … recent geopolitical events and the macroeconomic consequences, including reduced potential for further rate cuts, could reduce confidence in a near-term market recovery. This has now b