LONDON (Alliance News) - Telford Homes PLC on Wednesday said both its revenue and profit grew in its 2016 financial year as demand "continues to significantly outstrip supply" in London, which the residential property developer said will underpin its future growth.
Telford Homes reported revenue of GBP245.6 million for the year ended March 31, up 42% from the GBP173.5 million posted a year earlier, whilst pretax profit grew to GBP32.2 million from GBP25.1 million.
Telford said it has proposed a final dividend of 7.70 pence per share, bringing the total dividend to 14.20p, compared to the 11.10p it paid a year earlier.
The company said demand for its "typical product" remained strong from investors and owner-occupiers across its developments, noting its two recent private rented sector transactions earlier this year which it said is a "new direction" for the company and could become an increasingly significant part of the business in the coming years.
Telford Homes said the strong demand was evident in its 548 market sales added in the year and total forward sales at April 1 amounting to GBP579.0 million of future revenue. A year earlier, total forward sales amounted to GBP503.0 million of future revenue.
Its development pipeline is in excess of GBP1.50 billion of future revenue.
"The group is focused on desirable non-prime locations in London at a price point that continues to see strong demand. There is a housing crisis in London and a clear imbalance between the supply of homes and the needs of a growing population. This imbalance underpins the board's plans to increase the number of homes the group is building both for open market sale and subsidised affordable housing," said Chief Executive Jon Di-Stefano.
"Telford Homes is more than 50% forward sold for the next three financial years combined and has a development pipeline greater than six times the revenue reported in the year to 31 March, 2016. The move towards private rented sector sales is an excellent fit with the group's typical product and area of operation and results in significantly enhanced capital returns," Di-Stefano added.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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