Simon Thompson in IC again10 Dec 2014 22:27
received by email: ... just written in today's Investors Chronicle
I also noted last week's upbeat trading statement from Inland (INL:59p), the small cap homebuilder and brownfield land developer. In the first half to end December 2014, the company has so far completed on 161 homes which is more than the 114 units sold for the whole of the last financial year and almost 60 per cent of the 270 forecast for the current fiscal year. Housing revenue of £38.4m equates to a blended average per unit of £233,000, but looking through the impact of bulk sales, underlying prices achieved topped the £270,000 estimate from analyst Duncan Hall at broking house finnCap. Moreover, second half reservations total £30.4m to date, implying that the 270 sales forecast is more or less in the bag.
The pipeline of land deals is equally robust: Inland currently has planning applications submitted for 545 residential units and 7,700 sq ft of commercial space across four sites. In the past six months, planning consents or resolutions to grant planning permission have been received on five sites for 393 residential units and 205,000 sq ft of commercial space. In addition, the company has made representations on seven strategic sites for the delivery of up to 1,500 residential homes and made pre-application submissions on six sites for 892 residential homes. Factoring in the recent land deal with Southampton City Council, details of which I outlined five weeks ago ('New highs beckon', 4 November 2014), this means that the company's land bank is now in excess of 4,000 plots, up from a record 3,700 plots at the time of the full-year results at the end of Sep