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The trading statement comes a day after Halifax reported that house prices jumped by 2.6% in May, the biggest one-month rise in more than six years. Last week, Nationwide also reported a rise in prices, although analysts have suggested that the small number of actual sales may be distorting the picture.
Despite its cautious tone, Bellway said it was looking to start buying land suitable for traditional two-storey housing, the first housebuilder to return to the land market.
In a research note on the company, Panmure Gordon described this as "the interesting part" of the statement: "We believe that this is the stage where those housebuilders with a strong balance sheet (Bellway/Bovis) will be able to gain advantage. Other housebuilders with weaker balance sheets (Barratt/Redrow/Taylor Wimpey) remain focused on debt reduction (which they need to do), and will have to rely on significantly dilutive fundraisings (which Taylor Wimpey has recently undertaken) in order to resume build activity/land purchases."
Bellway's first trading update since it announced its results at the end of March, which included an 80% cut in the firm's dividend, said "there has been no major change in demand for our products".
"First-time buyers continue to struggle to raise deposits and, consequently, access to the first step on the housing ladder remains difficult. With entry to the mortgage market still restricted and lenders' valuation policies remaining inconsistent, cancellation rates are still running at historically high levels," said Bellway, which last year held tentative merger talks with rival Redrow.
Despite this, net reservations - the number of buyers agreeing to buy a house, usually by paying a deposit, minus the number of cancellations - have continued to average 105 per week since 1 February.
To persuade people to buy, the company has continued to use discounts, part exchange and shared equity but Bellway said the offers were "not increasing as a percentage of selling prices, therefore bringing some stability to our pricing structure".