Telford Homes FY profit and revenue surge amid strong demand

Residential property developer Telford Homes posted a 28% jump in pre-tax profit for the year to the end of March as revenue surged amid strong demand.

Pre-tax profit rose to £32.2m from £25.1m in 2015, as revenue increased 42% to a record £245.6m.

The company said it saw strong demand, with 548 new open market sales added in the year and total forward sales at 1 April amounting to £579m of future revenue, versus £503m the year before.

Telford proposed a final dividend of 7.7p, taking the total dividend for the year to 14.2p, up from 11.1p.

Chief executive Jon Di-Stefano said: “It has been another exceptional year for Telford Homes resulting in record revenue and profits. The group has been successful in forward selling homes through traditional channels and has added to this by contracting its first significant sales in the Private Rented Sector.

“The 2015 equity placing for £50m, together with substantial headroom in the group's £180m revolving credit facility, means Telford Homes is in a strong position to continue its growth.”

Telford said it is developing in parts of London where the supply of new homes is nowhere near meeting the demand from people who need a place to live. It now has a development pipeline in excess of £1.5bn which it said will deliver some of these much needed homes over the next few years, with the opportunity to do even more.

“As a result the board has enhanced its longer term growth expectations with pre-tax profit forecast to increase over the next three years and to exceed £50m in the year to 31 March 2019.”

At 0855 BST, Telford shares were up 0.2% to 372p.