Yorkshire’s resilient housing market helps housebuilder deliver record profits
A resilient housing market in Yorkshire has helped housebuilder Strata deliver record profit despite wider political and economic uncertainty.
Strata saw turnover hit £128m in the year ending July 1, 2017, while pre-tax profit on residential property sales, before share based payment charges, took a leap forward from £11.1m to £20m.
The Doncaster-based business has completed 605 homes across 20 sites in the last 12 months, with an average selling price of £212,000, up by 22%.
Strata said growth has been driven by acquiring quality sites across a wider geography throughout Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
Strata’s chief executive, Andrew Weaver, said: “Despite wider political and economic uncertainty, we are exceptionally pleased by the resilience of the housing market in Yorkshire and East Midlands.
“As well as improving our operational margin, we have used the favourable conditions to widen our geographical reach, diversified our house type range and fortified our position as a fore runner in design and customer service.”
With a strong and sustainable land pipeline and sites negotiated or contracted, future growth for the brand is reinforced by a record forward selling position going into 2017/18 with 65% sales committed of the 700 plots forecast.
Weaver said: “2016/17 saw the highest demand since the launch of Help to Buy in 2013, this has been coupled with high affordability pass rates and record low
cancellation rates. Furthermore, our focus on customer experience has seen us named as one of only 15 housebuilders nationally to secure 5-star status from the HBF.”
