"Healthy" market conditions provide encouragement for housebuilder
HOUSEBUILDER MJ Gleeson has reported “healthy” market conditions as sales showed marked improvements in the second half of 2014.
The group has two divisions, housebuilding in the north of England and strategic land banking in the south, and expects profits to show “a strong increase” on last year when it announces its interim results next month.
Jolyon Harrison, MJ Gleeson’s chief executive, said: “The first half performance of both Gleeson Homes and Gleeson Strategic Land has been encouraging as we continue to benefit from our focussed, twin track strategy of providing low cost family homes in the North of England, and strategic land promotion in the South. We expect to report a result for the full year in line with current expectations.”
Gleeson Homes, which focuses on estate regeneration and housing development on brownfield land in the north, sold 321 homes in the period, compared with 258 last year. It said it was seeing “strong customer demand in all of our regions”.
Forward orders are also nearly one-quarter higher – 299 units against 240 – while completions by June 30 are expected to be above 700, compared with 561 a year earlier.
It is currently working on 39 sites, compared with 33 in the corresponding period.
The group’s second division, Gleeson Strategic Land, purchases options over land in the south of England with the objective of enhancing the value of the site concerned by securing residential planning permission.
It sold two sites, and expects to sell six of its eight sites that have planning permission, or have permission pending, in this financial year. Of the 13 sites where planning permission is still subject to an application or appeal, it said “it may also be possible to sell a number of these sites” this year.
