Countryside ramps up completion by almost a third

Countryside Properties ramped up house building activity over the first half of the year to deliver a 31% rise in home completions to over 1,400 units.

The mixed tenure house builder said it now boasted a record order book and expected trading for the full-year to be ahead of expectations.

Underlying house price inflation was around 6% in the half year to the end of March, while underlying build cost inflation hit 3%-4%.

This helped to lift revenue by nearly a quarter to £351m, and more that trebled pre-tax profit to £60m.

Ian Sutcliffe, Group Chief Executive, said that growth in active sites and increased sales rates resulted in a sharp increase in completions which looked set to continue in the second half of the year.

“Our strong performance across the business in the first half exceeded our expectations.

“In particular, our Partnerships division once again delivered outstanding growth and returns.

“We continue to be highly successful at winning new business in this division, with three large sites secured in the first half, at Bromley, Maidenhead and Barking.

“We enter the second half of 2017 in an excellent position with 81 operational sites and a record private forward order book.

“With strong operational delivery and an increasing pipeline of future work, we see continued outperformance in the medium‑term and are upgrading our outlook for 2017 and 2018.“ 

Divisional trading highlights

Partnerships highlights

· Completions: 987 homes, up 23%
· Adjusted operating profit: £38.5m, up 66%
· Adjusted operating margin: 17.2% (HY 2016: 16.7%)
· Land bank plus preferred bidder: 17,528 plots, up 18%

Housebuilding highlights

· Completions: 450 homes, up 54%
· Adjusted operating profit: £34.5m, up 24%
· Adjusted operating margin: 16.3% (HY 2016: 16.0%)
· Land bank: 20,472 plots (HY 2016: 18,273) of which 85% has been strategically sourced

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2017/05/17/countryside-ramps-up-completion-by-almost-a-third/

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