Barratt upbeat as profits rise due to stable housing market
BARRATT Developments has forecast a big rise in full-year profit, and said yesterday its drive to build new homes on higher-margin land would allow more progress as long as the housing market remained relatively stable.
The group said it expected to post a 41 per cent jump in operating profit before exceptional items to around £191m when it reports its full-year results on 12 September.
The group has shifted towards building on high-margin land, a focus on containing costs and a significant increase in volumes – with 12,637 completions compared with 11,078 in the year-earlier period, chief financial officer David Thomas said.
“We feel we have certainly outperformed slightly compared with our expectations and the market’s expectations,” Thomas said, adding that about a third of completions came from new land contracts with gross margins above 20 per cent.