The housing recovery can't come fast enough for lighting retailer Beacon, which has warned that underlying first-half profits will fall about 22 per cent as sales and margins come under pressure.

Beacon, which owns about 113 stores around the country, expects underlying net profit to fall 21.7 per cent to $9 million in the six months ending December, due to the weaker Australian dollar, subdued consumer confidence, disruption from bushfires and a poor performance from its emerging businesses.