House building group Galliford Try (LON:GFRD) has seen their share price tick up as their trading update revealed strong performance across their business.
They reported that its housebuilding business, Linden Homes, increased their average sales rate to 0.62 units per site, up from 0.56 in the same period last year.
This result of this was that Linden Homes saw the value of sales reserved climb 5.8% to £652 million.
The land bank for the company is down from the year previous, however they confirm they have acquired 100% and 93% of land for the current and next financial year respectively.
Galliford Try further reported that their partnerships and regeneration business is in rude health due recent government announcements. This has resulted to an increase in certainty, according to the company, leading to investments being brought forward. The order book has surged from £873 million last year to a record level of £1.3 billion.
Earlier this year Galliford Try purchased housebuilder Drew Smith which has added to growth as well as providing a balanced portfolio with regional businesses in the East Midlands and West of England.
Construction activity for the business as a whole has remained healthy as its order book is up £0.2 billion and has 94% of projected revenue for this financial year secured, in addition to 51% for the next.
The robust trading of Galliford Try is in the face of yesterday’s RICS study which revealed negativity around the UK property market from estate agents and that house prices have stagnated over the past three months, falling in some parts of the country.
Whilst these results may provide some optimism, Peter Truscott, Galliford Try chief executive, talked of confidence in the board’s ability to maintain strong performance even in a period of lower growth in the wider economy.”
Galliford Try share price has risen 1.8% to 1,198p at the time of writing