Bardon-based housebuilder Barratt doubles profits to £45m
Building firm Barratt today said profits more than doubled in the second half of 2012 as the housing market continued to return to health.
The Bardon-based company revealed it made a surplus of £45 million in the six months to December 31, compared to £21.6 million in the same period of 2011.
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A Barratt home
This was despite a small fall in total revenue, from £952.8 million to £950 million.
The group, which owns David Wilson Homes, was boosted by an increase in profit margins, which rose by almost a third to 8.4 per cent.
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Barratt, like many other house builders, is seeing a bounce-back in profits following the credit crunch. It comes after the firm bought land cheaply in the deepest part of the recession and is now using it to develop more up-market homes which can be sold at higher margins.
The company completed the sale of 4,241 homes during the half-year, up 5.3 per cent on the same period of 2011.
Chief executive Mark Clare predicted profits would continue to grow healthily.
"We have been investing for the future, successfully securing higher margin land both in the South-East and across the rest of the country that will drive further profit growth," he said.
Comments
by DrTerriEynon
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 5:12PM
“After the problems with Schlegel, the Bardon motor-parts factory and the Ellistown warehouse losing the Waitrose contract, it should be good news that a local housebuilder is doing well.
If Eric Pickles approves the District Council's plans to build 3.5 thousand houses to the South East of Coalville, things will continue to look up. From a developer's point of view, it must seem a great idea to build upmarket commuter cottages between the M1 and M42.
Unfortunately for local people, it didn't occur to the Tories that it was going to cost around £20million to sort out the A511 junctions so they can take all this new traffic.
The developers, faced with paying the Council up to £5k per house for road improvements, are threatening to walk away. In a pathetic attempt to patch up this mess, those in power now want to change the local planning rules. At a Cabinet meeting on 15th January they voted to let developers off their responsibility to build small, affordable homes.
Developers will profit if this decision is allowed to go ahead. South East Coalville will be an expensive commuter dormitory of four and five bedroom executive homes subsidised by Council tax payers.
Meanwhile, Coalville's grown-up children will either have to move away or start their families in overcrowded houses, sharing a kitchen with Mum and Grandma.
It is the young couples and small families of Coalville who will lose out. We need at least 800 new affordable homes in North West Leicestershire over the next 20 years. If they aren't built in Coalville they will have to to go somewhere else.”
by Peter20101
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 4:55PM
“its tough out there for housebuilders and developers eh?
Planning free for all will no doubt form part of their profit plan for 2013 onwards”