Bovis Homes sees profit jump

Bovis Homes has seen its full-year profit jump 20% in 2015 to £160.1m, up from £133.5m the previous year.

The housebuilder also posted revenue growth of 17% in its full-year calendar results to £946.5m, up from £809.4m in 2014, on the back of a strong increase in completions and in the average sales price.

The housing market in 2015 benefitted from strong customer demand and an 18% jump in monthly mortgage approvals on the previous year, Bovis Homes said.

The group welcomed the extension of the government’s Help to Buy scheme to 2021 and the certainty and confidence it gives the market, but reserved judgement on the proposals for the Starter Homes scheme still in development.

Bovis Homes said the level of new build homes was still falling below government targets and warned that the cost of building new homes is expected to increase as rising activity levels in the sector further constraining the labour supply.

The group said it was therefore investing in its leadership team and grown its employee numbers by 134 during the year to 1,062-strong. It added though that it was seeing labour constraints most acute in its build department and had recruited 192 new employees into its construction teams including 37 new apprentices.

Bovis Homes Group chief executive David Ritchie said the “fast moving market conditions” had created operational challenges the group envisages delivering sustainable growth over the next few years assuming market conditions remain stable.

The group intends to continue with it’s strategy laid out in 2014 and acquired 35 new sites in 2015 for £343m and at 31 December 2015 owned 142 consented sites and sold four parcels of land in 2015 for £30m and said it plans more in 2016.

Bovis Homes added that its Wellingborough site had obtained revised planning consent in December for 3,650 plots and planned to start on site in 2016.

The group began operating as eight regional businesses at the beginning of 2016.