LONDON (Alliance News) - Regeneration and housebuilding company Inland Homes PLC said it looks to the future with "considerable optimism", despite warning its profit is likely to be lower than market forecasts for its financial year that ended June 30, due to delayed housing transactions.
The housebuilder currently has a forward order book of GBP23.4 million, with 315 homes currently under construction across 8 sites.
Inland Homes said the "fundamentals" of the house building market remained strong, supported by low interest rates and the UK government's Help to Buy Scheme, which the company said assisted in 32% of its unit sales. The average selling price of its homes was GBP339,000 in the recent financial year. The full-year figures was up from GBP325,000 in the first half.
Inland Homes said it has continued to see a "steady level of enquiries" from potential customers. It said sales and enquiries were "unaffected" by the uncertainty ahead of the UK's referendum on European Union membership and demand since the vote to leave has remained stable.
During the year, Inland Homes said it secured 147 legal sale completions, down on the 248 in its previous financial year. The company said the reduction in the number of units sold was partly due to a bulk sale of 59 units in its previous financial year.
Additionally, during the financial year, a contractor employed by Inland Homes on four of its sites entered into administration. This resulted in the delay of 23 legal completions, which will now count towards revenue in Inland Home's new financial year.
The company said its land bank increased 16% since the end of December, standing at a "record" 6,552 plots by the financial year end, of which Inland Homes has planning permission for 1,225 plots. Inland Homes also said it currently has planning applications submitted on 1,268 plots and expects 246 of those to receive consent over the coming weeks.
Inland Homes said its "strategic" land holding, comprising of sites next to existing housing and likely to get zoned for development, expanded and now totals 334 acres across 20 sites, with the potential to build 1,610 homes.
The company noted purchased the former headquarters of Tesco PLC in Hertfordshire in July after the end of the recent financial year. The 13 acre site will be part of a regeneration project called Cheshunt Lakeside, Inland Homes said, with a new "urban village" of around 1,000 homes and a commercial space.
Inland Homes said that, as a result of the reduced number of legal completions, and costs which will be incurred completing the four delayed development sites, profit for the recent year before the revaluation of investment properties and tax is expected to be "marginally lower" than the market forecast of GBP15.9 million.
However, Inland Homes said, with the delayed sales set for its current financial year, it remains confident in its outlook for the current year, which runs to June 2017.
"While we have been somewhat impacted in the short term by one of our contractors going into administration, against the current supportive market environment, we look to the future with considerable optimism," said Stephen Wicks, Inland Homes chief executive.
Shares in Inland Homes were down 0.9% at 65.75 pence Friday.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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