LONDON (Alliance News) - London-focused residential property developer Telford Homes PLC expects its full-year results to beat market forecasts after the group experienced consistently strong demand over the year and has been boosted by a strategy of developing properties in non-prime areas of the capital.
Telford said its pretax profit for the year to the end of March is anticipated to be ahead of market expectations, with its operating margin also expected to show an improvement on the 17.1% it reported a year earlier.
The group said it has been seeing consistently strong demand, with 661 open market properties sold in the period, up from 515 a year earlier. The group said selling prices have been boosted by its strategy of developing in areas of non-prime, inner London, where demand is outstripping supply and property prices have continued to rise at a modest rate.
Telford's development pipeline at the end of March was more than GBP1 billion, with more than 50% forward sold. For the coming financial year to the end of March 2016, the group has 93% of its pipeline forward sold.
The company said it is not concerned by any of the housing policies so far tabled by political parties in the UK in the run-up to the General Election and said there has been no sign of any short-term impact on house demand ahead of the polls.
"Telford Homes is operating in areas of London that benefit from a stable property market and yet still suffer from a shortage of supply. The board expects significant growth in output and profits over the next few years and remains very confident in the long term prospects for Telford Homes," said Chief Executive John Di-Stefano.
Shares in Telford were up 0.5% to 439.00 pence on Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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