Brighter prospects for property group as markets begin to recover
Sheffield-headquartered property investor and developer, Henry Boot, has reported strong sales and an improving outlook in its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2024.
The business completed and exchanged on total land and property sales of £150.8m (H1 23: £129.3m), which it says reflects growing demand for its prime projects and buildings.
A lower starting forward sales position resulted in revenue of £106m (H1 23: £179.8m) and profit before tax of £3.7m (H1 23: £25m) or an underlying profit of £3.6m (H1 23: £23.3m).
Tim Roberts, chief executive officer, said: “During the first half of the year we have started to see an improvement in our markets and this together with our focus on prime land and development, plus premium homes has helped us to achieve relatively strong property sales.
“The lower forward sales with which we started the year has affected our first half financial performance and as flagged at the time of our 2023 results, we expect 2024 to be heavily weighted towards the second half.
“With 81% of budgeted sales already completed, exchanged or reserved, we remain on track to perform in line with market expectations for the full year.
“Furthermore, we remain confident in our key markets, and have significant latent value in our development and land portfolio which is held at cost, as well as plenty of opportunity to grow in order to meet our stated medium-term targets.”
Henry Boot adds that with inflation back in line with the Bank of England’s target and the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision in August to cut interest rates for the first time since March 2020, market sentiment has improved, resulting in reduced borrowing costs leading to an increase in activity.
The business notes it is also encouraged by the direction of the new Labour government around reforms to the planning system and reintroduction of housebuilding targets for local authorities.
The company says it remains “convinced” that its three key markets – industrial, residential and urban development – benefit from long-term structural trends where demand is likely to outstrip supply.
