Real Estate

Housebuilder Barratt cements record profits


The UK’s largest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, made record pre-tax profits of £835.5m in the year to June as it built its highest number of homes in the past decade.

Pre-tax profit was up 9.2 per cent from a year earlier, on a 4.8 per cent rise in revenue to £4.9bn. 

Barratt completed 17,579 homes during the year, a 1.1 per cent increase, while pushing up gross margin to 20.7 per cent from 20 per cent the year before. 

John Allan, chairman, said: “Market conditions remain good with a wide availability of attractive mortgage finance, which, alongside [the government scheme for homebuyers] Help to Buy, continues to support robust consumer demand.”

Barratt said its rates of housebuilding would grow by 3 to 5 per cent a year in future, with the current order book up 11.1 per cent from last year at £3.1bn. 

The group highlighted that “political uncertainty continues around the country’s departure from the EU and ministerial changes in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government” — a reference to the rapid turnover of ministers in the department, which has had eight ministers in as many years. 

However, it said: “The board remain confident in the strong fundamentals of the housing sector and our business.” 

Barratt plans to pay out a final dividend of 17.9p a share plus a special dividend of 17.3p a share, bringing total payouts for the full year to 43.8p a share, up 5 per cent from a year earlier.



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