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Crest Nicholson Holdings PLC on Thursday highlighted some positive signals for the housing market heading into 2026 after what it termed a year of ‘transition and transformation’ in 2025. The Surrey, England-based housebuilder swung to a pretax profit of £2.9 million in the financial year ending October from a £145.8 million loss the year prior, despite revenue dropping 1.2% to £610.8 million from £618.2 million. Prior year figures were dented by £158.4 million of exceptional charges, mainly reflecting fire remediation costs. Crest Nicholson said it has made substantial progress on its fire remediation programme, achieving the survey completion date agreed by the industry with government. ‘Work is now well underway on the buildings requiring remediation and we continue to execute in line with our overall cost expectations,’ the firm added. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit increased 31% to £26.5 million from £20.3 million. Adjusted operating profit rose 19% to £34.7 million from £29.2 million with an operating margin of 5.7%, up from 4.7%. Chief Executive Martyn Clark called 2025 a ‘year of transition and transformation’ amid ‘ongoing market challenges’. ‘A key early priority has been strengthening the balance sheet. We completed several land sales on attractive economic terms and introduced tighter inventory and cash management controls across the business which saw us finish the year with an indebtedness position that was better than our guidance,’ he said. However, net debt still ballooned to £38.2 million from £8.5 million. Home completions in financial 2025 fell 9.7% to 1,691 from 1,873 the year prior, but the firm pointed to some green shoots in the industry. ‘While the housing market remains subdued, we are starting to see some early signs of improvement,’ the firm said. ‘January sales rates have strengthened, supported by improving customer engagement as interest rates gradually ease, affordability improves and our enhanced customer proposition gains traction,’ it added. ‘With these fundamentals improving, and with our deliberate and differentiated strategy, Crest Nicholson is well positioned to deliver a year of profitable growth and make progress towards our medium-term targets.’ Looking ahead, Crest Nicholson forecast open market units of 1,100 to 1,200 in financial 2026, which runs to October, and bulk and affordable units of 450 to 500. It forecast full-year adjusted pretax profit of £32 million to £40 million and an adjusted gross margin of 15% to 16%. Net debt is seen between a wide range of £15 million to £65 million. The total dividend was boosted 41% to 3.1p from 2.2p. Shares in Crest Nicholson jumped 10% to 149.20 pence each in London on Thursday. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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