Positive annual results for housebuilder despite economic factors ‘tempering demand’

Doncaster-headquartered housebuilder Strata has reported a strong financial performance for a third consecutive year, with sales in the year ending 30 June 2018 delivering a total revenue of £153m and operating profit from housebuilding activities of £19.5m.

This is up fromn the previous year when Strata reported revenues of £128m, while pre-tax profit on residential property sales, before share based payment charges, stood at £20m.

During the year, the business has completed 672 homes, up 10% from the 605 homes sold the previous year, and the average selling price has increased from £224,000 to £248,000. In Yorkshire specifically, 498 homes were sold across 15 developments in Doncaster, Hull, Leeds, Rotherham and Wakefield in the last twelve months.

The results are reinforced by a record forward selling position with 80% of homes already under reservation for the current year and 38% sold for the year to June 2020.

Strata’s Chief Executive, Andrew Weaver, said: “We are pleased with these results, the general health of the housing market and our forward sales but we are aware too of the challenges ahead; supply remains constrained causing upward pressure on costs and only modest selling price growth is forecast due to macro-economic factors, like Brexit, tempering demand.”

“However, the work we have put in on developing our culture, the quality of our people and the clarity of our purpose should hold us in good store.”

Strata has broadened its range appealing both to its core urban first-time buyer market but also to aspirational ‘second steppers’ in search of high-quality family living. It has continued to invest in sites across all its geographic areas and now has a land pipeline, either owned or under its control, of 5,500 plots with a potential gross development value of £1.3bn.

The business is now established as a leading private developer across the Yorkshire and Humber region with over 4,500 plots under its control with a forecast gross development value of £1bn in these areas.

Notable significant schemes added to the land pipeline this year are the former Vickers tank factory site in Leeds, a development to the south of Beverley and a major mixed-use scheme to the West of Barnsley, which between them will deliver approximately 2,400 homes.

 

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