14th May 2020 12:20
(Alliance News) - MJ Gleeson PLC on Thursday said it will be reopening its sites and sales offices later this week as it continues to secure reservations during the lockdown period.
The housebuilder said it will have reopened up to half of its sites for limited building activity by the end of this week, and all sites will have reopened by the end of June.
The company explained that an initial on-site activity through May and June will focus on preparing site infrastructure and other ground-level works ahead of building out its forward order book.
In addition, MJ Gleeson said it will begin to reopen sales offices this week on a regional hub basis and will have 19 sales offices covering all 67 sites open within two weeks.
During the lockdown period, MJ Gleeson said it continued to take reservations and exchange contracts for sale, albeit at significantly lower levels. The company said it has not to date experienced any negative impact on selling prices, incentives or lender valuations.
Looking forward, the company said it has a strong balance sheet with cash balances as at the end of April 2020 of GBP83.9 million.
"It will be some time before we can accurately assess demand but we are encouraged by the level of interest from prospective buyers in just the last few days," said Chief Executive James Thomson.
"Our segment of the market is typically the one that recovers the fastest," added Thomson.
MJ Gleeson shares were trading 1.0% higher in London on Thursday at 693.30 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; [email protected]
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