Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Crest Nicholson Holdings PLC on Tuesday said ahead of its annual general meeting, that it anticipates annual profit to be ahead of consensus expectations, following a good trading performance and resilient market conditions.
Shares in Crest Nicholson were up 2.6% at 385.06 pence on Tuesday morning in London, one of the best performers in the FTSE 250.
For its current financial year to date, the Chertsey, Surrey-based housebuilder reported a private sales outlet per week of 0.81, reflecting an improvement from 0.59 from the prior year in full.
Crest said the UK housing market has remained resilient despite the damage caused by Covid-19 and the sector is set to benefit from the measures recently outlined in the UK budget statement earlier this month. These include the extension of the Stamp Duty holiday and the introduction of the government-backed 95% mortgage guarantee scheme.
In addition, as at March 22, Crest's order book is over 70% covered for 2021, up from 55% as reported with its annual results in January. This includes sales which will be legally completed after the end of phase one of Help to Buy and the Stamp Duty holiday extension, which the group said highlighted customer confidence in the market.
Looking ahead, for the year ending October 31 Crest expects adjusted pretax profit to be GBP85 million, up 14% from consensus expectations of GBP74.3 million, and also 85% higher from GBP45.9 million the year before.
Crest will publish its interim results on June 23.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
