Housebuilder’s revenues near £450m

Housebuilder Avant Homes has reported a third year of record results in a ‘buoyant’ northern market.

Reporting on its annual results to 27 April 2018, Avant Homes said its operating profit was up 43% to £65.9m (FY17: £46m) and revenues had risen 21% to £447m (FY17: £369m).

During the period, Avant Homes saw total house completions rise 16% to 1,902 (FY17: 1,636). The firm added 3,071 plots to its owned and contracted land supply, which now stands at 7,921 plots.

It saw a strategic land pull through of 1,062 plots in the year (35%) with further options now held over more than 5,000 plots. Avant Homes said it also had a strong forward order book, with 42% sold for FY19 as at 30 June 2018.

Colin Lewis, chief executive of Avant Homes, said: “FY18 was a landmark year for Avant, as we delivered another record performance across the board. The continuing health of housing market conditions in the Midlands, the north of England and the central belt of Scotland where we operate and the continued buoyancy of our mid-market offering supports our plan to ramp up our growth targets to more than double our output to 4,000 aspirational, design-led homes per annum by 2023.

“We remain committed to investing in land in our key Northern regions, exemplified by our excellent land supply, and have made positive progress optimising our efficiencies and increasing our margins. Our product range continues to evolve to cover a larger portion of the UK housing market and customer demand for our aspirational homes is increasing.

“We welcomed the findings of the Letwin Review, which completely exonerated housebuilders in relation to accusations of “landbanking” while also highlighting the importance of market absorption rates and of addressing the skills shortage the industry currently faces. For the last 18 months we have been developing our strategy of operating dual sales outlets from one site, focusing on the more efficient use of capital and improving the absorption rate, which is precisely the issue identified by Letwin. We also look forward to working with new housing minister Kit Malthouse and hope that he shares our long-term approach to building the homes that the UK badly needs.

“Overall, our Northern UK markets remain supportive, and we have begun our new financial year strongly as we build towards our intention of becoming a £1bn turnover business.”