Pre-tax profits down 40% for listed home builder
Sheffield-headquartered house building firm MJ Gleeson has seen its overall pre-tax profits fall 40.4% £22.3m to £13.3m in its results for the half year ended 31 December 2019.
However, the company said this was expected, following a period of no Strategic Land sales and an exceptionally strong comparator period for the division.
And its chairman Dermot Gleeson pointed to continued strong performance in the firm’s Homes division and a return to deal flow with a healthy pipeline of demand in Strategic Land.
Over the same period, Group revenue for the business reduced 11.2% to £105m (H1 18/19: £118.3m).
Unit sales increased 17.4% to 811 units (H1 18/19: 691), while the average selling price increased 1.2% to £128,900 (H1 18/19: £127,400).
MJ Gleeson reported a land pipeline of 13,625 plots (June 2019: 13,575 plots) and a strong start to H2 with three sites sold and four sites currently in a sale process.
Dermot Gleeson added: “We are delighted with the performance of our Homes division, with completions up 17.4% at 811 units.
“Demand remains strong, with January reservations per site up 5% on last year. We see no signs of this abating. Land remains available at sensible prices and we will be opening a significant number of new sites shortly.
“As previously announced, Strategic Land, which saw an exceptionally strong result for the comparator period, did not complete any sales in the first half.
“However, the anticipated deal flow in the second half is now materialising with three sites sold, of which one was sold unconditionally and legally completed in January. We have a substantial pipeline in place and demand for consented sites, from both large and medium-sized developers, remains very high.
“The strong performance of Gleeson Homes and anticipated deal flow in Strategic Land for the second half underpin the Board’s confidence that the Group’s results for the full year will be in line with expectations.”
