Property developer, Bovis Homes Group have shared some good news in their preliminary results for the year ending 31st December 2011. They report an operating profit of £36m for 2011, an increase of 69% on the previous year.
The background makes quite positive reading too. There were 2045 completed home sales, an increase of 8%. The average sale price was £180,100 which is up by 5% on 2010. Bovis has also increased its land bank as it now holds 18.749 plots with outline or potential planing consent against 17,325 in 2010.
David Ritchie, chief executive of Bovis Homes Group, says:
As well as driving profitability, the Group is focused on enhancing shareholder returns through improving the efficiency of its capital employed, through land bank management, including the sale of consented plots on selected sites, and by managing working capital tightly.
2012 is looking better too, private reservations have apparently increased and are reported to be ahead of expectations.
Taylor Wimpey
One of Britain’s largest volume new home builders have announced increased profits, and resumed dividend payments for the first time since the property crash.
Gross profits were up by 25% to £287m, boosted by the sale of written down land which achieved a better value than expected.
The average selling price for a Taylor Wimpey home was £185,000 which is just £1,000 up on the previous year. They were the first to point out that the increased profits were more to do with efficiency savings rather than a marked improvement in the general housing market.
Persimmon Returns 1.9bn To Investors
Persimmon has announced that it is returning the cash at the same time as reporting full-year results showing pre-tax profits fell to £147m from £154m in 2010. Revenue for the year was £1.54bn down slightly on the previous year’s £1.57bn
Persimmon reported that they completed 5,643 home sales in 2011, which was nearly 3% lower than the prior year. Although they said that the second half improved with sales 7.7% higher than the previous six months.
The average selling price was £167,580, down 2.8pc on the previous year, which Persimmon blamed on smaller houses making up a bigger share of its sales.