INL.L Share News (INL)

(Sharecast News) - Inland Homes updated the market on its current trading on Thursday, confirming that it currently remained in line with the board's expectations.
The AIM-traded firm said it had in place a "wide range" of business continuity plans to mitigate potential disruption to the business from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, and to ensure the maintenance of operational continuity, while protecting the health and wellbeing of its colleagues and customers.

It said it had a "well-structured and flexible" business model consisting a number of independent income streams, a "high-quality" asset base and a "highly experienced" management team.

The group added that it had borrowing facilities with "well staggered" maturity dates, as well as "significant headroom" for its house building activities.

Looking at its housebuilding, Inland said its current forward sales position of homes reserved and exchanged stood at around ?47.2m.

That included the hotel under construction in Bournemouth as part of the Wessex development, which was forward sold to Aviva for ?13.3m.

Current reservation rates remained "resilient", the company said, with no major change in buying interest or visitor numbers in recent weeks, with the majority of sales being to first-time buyers.

Selling prices were said to be in line with expectations, with the average selling price remaining at about ?250,000.

The group said it was on target to achieve 65 legal completions worth around ?17.5m during the course of March, in line with the board's expectation.

In partnership housing, the sector was still the company's fastest growing activity, in line with its strategy, with a forward order book of ?86m.

Inland Homes said partnership transactions accelerated revenue and provided it with monthly cash flow, giving a balance to open market housebuilding.

Construction was continuing as usual across all schemes under construction, with all projects ahead of programme for delivery.

The board said the schemes were currently generating cash inflows in the order of ?7m per month.

It added that its blue-chip client base included a number of the UK's largest housing associations, including Clarion Housing Group and A2 Dominion.

"There remains considerable demand for much-needed new affordable homes with Inland proving an attractive delivery partner to the industry," the board said in its statement.

"Negotiations are ongoing regarding further partnership opportunities."

In land, the group said it has a number of "significant" profitable land sales which were expected to conclude in the near future, and looking at its rental income, Inland noted that it was generating income of more than ?3m per annum through its brownfield activities, including from its temporary modular housing business 'hugg homes' which are let to local housing authorities to provide short-term housing to meet immediate housing need.

Finally, at Hillingdon Gardens, Inland Homes said the Mayor of London was 'calling in' its major planning application for more than 500 homes at Hillingdon Gardens.

It said the mayor would now act as the local planning authority to consider the detailed planning application, following Hillingdon Council's announcement that it was minded to reject the planning application.

In its notification, a representative from the Greater London Authority (GLA) commented that the "proposed development has potential to make an important contribution to house and affordable housing supply," and "warrants further consideration by the mayor as the local planning authority".

The detailed plans submitted by the brownfield regeneration specialist would help transform the six-acre commercial site formerly known as the Master Brewer Hotel into a residential-led, mixed-use neighbourhood of 514 homes, the board explained, including 179 affordable homes and 1,250 square metres of commercial space.

It said the proposed new homes would include a range of one, two and three-bedrooms apartments to suit a wide range of housing needs, with the number of affordable homes in line with policy requirements.

Inland said one of the key features of this site were the "good" transport connections, as Hillingdon tube station adjoined the site, with direct services into central London in around 35 minutes and access to the M40 motorway less than two miles away.

"The group has in place a wide range of business continuity plans to mitigate potential disruption to the business from the spread of Covid-19 and to ensure the maintenance of operational continuity whilst protecting the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers," said chief executive officer Stephen Wicks.

"The announcement that the Mayor of London is 'calling in' the Hillingdon Gardens planning application is very welcome, demonstrating our unrivalled ability to identify brownfield sites where we can add value."

Wicks said that not only would Hillingdon Gardens deliver more than 500 "much needed" homes to the area, it would also provide additional employment opportunities and public realm benefit.

"The group can confirm that current trading remains in line with the board's expectations with resilient demand across its trading activities and the business is well positioned to build on the success we reported in January over the coming months."

At 1453 GMT, shares in Inland Homes were up 4.69% at 33.5p.