Redrow’s results have yet to return to pre-Covid levels, as its move out of London held back rising sales and profit.
The FTSE 250 housebuilder said that it brought in revenue of £1.94bn in the year to the end of June, a 45% uplift on last year’s £1.34bn but 8% shy of 2019’s £2.11bn.
Profit told a similar story, with 2021’s £314m more than double 2020’s £140m, but only around three-quarters of 2019’s £406m. Earnings per share, correspondingly, stand at 73.7p, ahead of last year’s 32.9p, but down on the pre-pandemic position of 92.3p.
The housebuilder sold 5,620 homes over the period, a 39% increase on last year but, again, down on 2019. There, however, the gap was just 13%.
Redrow said that it would continue to withdraw from London, as announced last year, to focus on its regional businesses.
Chair John Tutte highlighted that process as part of the reason for the result failing to hit 2019’s heights. “Following a pause in land buying during the early months of the pandemic, combined with the decision to withdraw from the London market, growth in active outlet numbers stagnated,” he said.
However, that position would now be reversed, with London sales allowing it to turn a £126m debt in 2020 to net cash of £160m, as well as making a significant investment in new land.
“Capital released from London is now being reinvested to help grow the regional businesses and during the year, the group added over 8,000 plots with planning, with a projected GDV of over £3bn, to its owned and contracted land holdings,” Tutte told investors.
“As a consequence of this strong land buying performance, the group is now back on-track with a pipeline of new outlets that will return the business to a pre-pandemic pattern of growth and an incremental recovery in profit and margins.”
High demand for homes has handed Redrow another record order book, up slightly to £1.43bn.
Redrow said that its final dividend, which was scrapped in 2020, would be 18.5p, just 2p shy of 2019.
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