Robust demand drives growth at property group
Property business Harworth Group says it is continuing to deliver its growth strategy supported by a robust market for its residential and industrial & logistics products.
Publishing a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2022, the Rotherham-headquartered company says 84% of its budgeted industrial & logistics land sales for the year have either completed, exchanged or are subject to heads of terms.
And the group adds it has made significant progress towards its ambition of 800,000 sq ft of direct development per annum.
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive, said: “We’re particularly well-positioned within our markets: we sell serviced and therefore de-risked residential land to housebuilders, we develop industrial & logistics sites in underserved regional markets, and the scale of our portfolio and range of our products, including our newly launched single-family Build to Rent portfolio, provide significant diversification.
Lynda Shillaw
“We are alive to the complex geopolitical and macro-economic environment impacting economies across the world, and we remain closely attuned to their potential impact on our markets.
“We are cautious that the anticipated uncertainty in near-term market conditions in the UK, combined with the strong performance in the first six months of the year, mean that our 2022 results will likely be first half weighted.
“Despite this, the supply and demand factors supporting our markets have been resilient to date, our pipeline remains robust and our through the cycle investment and management actions continue to drive value across our portfolio.”
Harworth is currently progressing a 28,990 plot residential pipeline through the sale of serviced plots and new Build to Rent product.
The Group completed its largest serviced residential land sale to date: a £29m sale at Waverley to Barratt and David Wilson Homes, capable of delivering approximately 450 homes.
And Harworth has diversified its residential product with the launch of a portfolio of up to 1,200 single-family BTR homes across 10 sites.
The business says it is targeting a 12 to 15-year land supply through acquisitions and progressing sites through planning.
It has completed several land acquisitions so far this year, primarily supporting land assembly and adding 1,143 plots and 3.9m sq ft to its total development pipeline.
