McCarthy & Stone has warned its may not be able to hits its growth targets despite increasing revenue to £635m in the year to 31 August.
The retirement home builder increased the number of completions by 20% to 2,299 units, compared to 1,923 in 2015, and said it should be able to increase its underlying profit before tax by around 19%.
But it warned there had been some evidence of weakness in the secondary housing market since its last update on 29 June, with a lower level of growth in enquiries and reservations than in the first nine months of the financial year and a higher level of cancellations.
The company said: “Whilst it is too early to judge what medium-term impact we will see from the EU referendum result and the Bank of England’s subsequent changes to monetary policy, prolonged housing market weakness, particularly in the secondary market, could affect our ability to deliver our targeted 15% volume growth previously indicated for the financial year ending 31 August 2017.”
From April: McCarthy & Stone profits up 33%
From June: McCarthy & Stone sees ‘uncertainty’ after Brexit
Clive Fenton, chief executive, said: “We continue to capitalise on increasing demand for retirement housing driven by the UK’s rapidly ageing population and have delivered strong growth in completions, reservations and profit this year.
“Notwithstanding current increased market uncertainty following the EU referendum result and any financial impact on the business in the short term, McCarthy & Stone remains in robust health to capitalise on a continuing benign land market and the attractive fundamentals of the retirement market over the medium term.”
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