Henry Boot has predicted an increase in development activity in 2019 in its half year results – though it warned continued performance depends on maintained confidence across UK property.
The investor and developer said it saw consistent levels of demand across its businesses in the first half, particularly for its housing development land division, Hallam Land.
Hallam Land sold 1,904 plots in the first six months of the year and holds interests in 173 sites over 14,015 acres – an increase from 13,273 acres in December 2017.
Total revenue was stable at £196.2m, while profit before tax increased 15.9% to £26.2m. Net asset value rose 17.9% from 184p to 217p per share.
It has strategic land sites with planning permission on more than 17,000 units – with a further 9,000 in the pipeline.
Jamie Boot, chairman of Henry Boot, said economic conditions in the first half of 2018 remained similar to 2017, adding: “The UK real estate sector thrives on certainty and stutters on uncertainty, which typically causes investment decisions to be deferred.”
However, he added that the company has not seen deferred investment decisions, though investors are showing more caution than before the Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU.
Boot said: “We continue to trade as actively as we have ever done. Customers and clients continue to take new space, particularly within the industrial and logistics markets, and we have been successfully increasing the number of future opportunities in that area.
“Subject to maintained confidence levels across the UK property market, we continue to have the opportunities secured to allow us to grow shareholder value, over both the short and long term, which remains our prime objective.”
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