Inland Homes warns of lower profits

Housebuilder expects lower profits than forecast; blames a delay in legal completions July 22, 2016 / Isla MacFarlane
Inland Homes warns of lower profits

Ahead of its preliminary results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2016, Inland Homes has released a trading statement which exercises cautious optimism. The housebuilder has warned that profits will be marginally lower than the market consensus forecast of £15.9 million, due to lower sales and a reduced number of legal completions.

During the year, the Group secured 147 legal completions, compared to 258 in 2015. A contractor working on four of Inland Homes’ development sites also ran into financial difficulties and has entered into administration. Inland Homes has taken full control the four sites, however 23 legal completions were delayed as a result.

However, Inland Homes said that the “fundamentals of the market in which we operate remain strong, supported by the current low interest rate environment and the government’s Help to Buy Scheme.”

The group added that market fundamentals were unaffected by the uncertainty ahead of the UK Referendum and purchaser appetite since the result has remained stable.

With a focus on moving towards the “self-delivery” of our new homes and an increase in our high quality land bank, we are confident in our ability to continue to deliver significant further value for shareholders as we look to grow the business and continue to take advantage of the supportive market.

“We are confident that our underlying business is extremely robust and the demand for our high quality, lower cost homes remains strong,” said Stephen Wicks, Chief Executive Officer of Inland Homes. “The appetite for our consented land is similarly unabated, while the size and quality of the land bank we are amassing has exceeded our targets. While we have been somewhat impacted in the short term by one of our contractors going into administration, against the current supportive market environment, we look to the future with considerable optimism.”

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