30th Jul 2014 09:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Inland Homes PLC Wednesday said it has delivered a strong performance in the year to June 30 and will report full-year results that are ahead of market expectations.
The land developer and housebuilding business said it has made progress in all areas of its operations, significantly growing its landbank, delivering a substantial increase in the number of residential unit completions and continuing to generate value from sales of land with planning permission to volume housebuilders.
Recently, the group made the strategic decision to increase its housebuilding activity in order to take advantage of market conditions and extract maximum value from its landbank. There has been a substantial increase in the number of residential unit completions, with the housebuilding activity playing an increasingly important role in generating group profits, the company said.
In the financial year, Inland completed the sale of 114 open market residential units, compared with 55 units a year earlier.
The company said margins generated on the sale of residential units have continued to improve and are ahead of budgeted expectations, reflecting continuing strong demand for housing in the areas in which Inland operates. In addition, the UK government's Help to Buy scheme remains a key selling tool, with 54% of the group's total private residential sales being made through the scheme, said the company.
The first phase of the Help to Buy scheme in England started in April 2013, making buyers of newly built homes eligible for a 20% equity loan from the government on top of their 5% deposit. The scheme has been extended until 2020 from its original 2016 end date. The second phase, which started in the autumn of 2013, guarantees a portion of a buyer's mortgage of new and existing homes and has not so far been extended beyond its current end date of 2016.
Inland said demand for its consented land from housebuilders remains strong, with 169 plots sold during the period. Recently the group received planned consent for 152 residential plots Woolwich, south east London and 101 residential plots in Ipswich.
Financially, the group said its cash balance stood rose GBP11.2 million at June 30, from GBP8.9 million at the end of December.
Inland Home shares were quoted up 1.9% at 45.10 pence Wednesday.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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