Urban Splash reduces losses but sales still fall
PROPERTY developer Urban Splash saw its sales drop by 31% in the year to March 31 to £35.3m (2009: £49.9m).
The company, which owns the Rotunda and Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, also declared pre-tax losses of £10.3m, which was a 73% drop on last year’s loss of £38.3m.
It said the figure included £6.3m worth of exceptional costs “which are not expected to re-occur”.
The Manchester-based developer argued that residential sales remained tough, but said progress had been made “on many fronts” during the year, including gaining approval to offer Homes and Communities Agency-backed initiatives such as Home Buy Direct and the First Time Buyers’ Initiative on some schemes.
It also managed to grow rental income to £12.7m (£10.6m). Income from commercial space made up the bulk of this, increasing to £10.6m (£9.1m).
“The challenge of losing tenants through insolvencies and exercising breaks was more than recompensed by our success with new lettings,” said the firm’s chairman Tom Bloxham in a statement accompanying the accounts.
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Mr Bloxham also argued that the group’s mature investment portfolio had outperformed the market, despite a further decline in value of 8% during the year, or £9.1m.
He said that since the market’s peak in March 2008 the value of its portfolio had fallen by 15%, compared with 45% elsewhere.
However, the group’s net assets dropped by £20.8m to £24.8m by the year end.
Its net debt reduced by £800,000 during the year but remains substantial at £221m.
Mr Bloxham added that £49.4m of funding gained from the HCA in March would allow it to build out stalled schemes such as Lakeshore in Bristol, phase two of its Saxton scheme in Leeds and its Longlands scheme at Stalybridge in Tameside.
“We as a business are not yet through the difficulties, but I believe we can now see a clear way forward,” he said.
“I believe my team has done an amazing job navigating through the difficulties of this economic recession, the drop in property values and banking collapse.”
He added that he felt the group’s expertise in urban regeneration, design, marketing and in developing public-private partnership would allow it to continue moving forwards.
