Inland grows turnover but housebuilder says profit half of pre-pandemic level

Inland Homes increased turnover by 46% last year but pre-tax profit was half its pre-pandemic, the housebuilder said today.

The brownfield site regeneration specialist, in its results for the 12 months to September 2021, reported revenue of £181.7m, up sharply on the £124m recorded last year in the midst of the pandemic.

Pre-tax profit rebounded to £13.2m from £3.4m but is still only slightly more than half the £25m reported before the pandemic.

The group said its gross profit margin on its housebuilding and partnerships businesses remains “unsatisfactory”.

Its housebuilding arm made a loss of £2.1m for the year while its contracting business turned in a £1.9m loss. But its asset management arm made a pre-tax profit of £21.6m.

Inland previously reported in November that it had been hit with £3.5m of unforeseen additional costs relating to a single partnerships contract covering one development site.

The group wrote off £500,000 due to aborted land transactions and has made a provision of £3.4m for expected future cost overruns.

Last year’s overall revenue figure of £181.7m was 23% higher than the £147.9m reported in the 2018/19 before covid-19.

Inland said increased demand in the housing market helped treble its turnover in its housebuilding division to £69.9m. The group sold 216 new homes, up from 96 last year, at an average selling price of £262,000, 9% higher than in 2020/21.

The group’s revenue from partnerships grew 16.4% to £60.3m due in part to increased demand from build-to-rent operators. Its asset management arm, which has six projects with the potential to deliver around 3,300 homes, increased its management fee income by 13.9% to £27.8m.