SPRINGFIELD Properties has revealed the business is trading ‘in line with market expectations’ in a trading update for the six months ended November 30, 2024.
The group entered the new financial year experiencing an improvement in private housing reservation rates as homebuyer confidence returned. Springfield revealed this momentum was sustained through the first half, resulting in an increased number of private housing reservations compared with H1 2024. Selling prices are said to have remained ‘resilient’ across the group’s brands.
In affordable housing, Springfield progressed the delivery of its contracts secured in the prior year. This, combined with having completed legacy contracts at the end of FY 2024, enabled a ‘significant improvement’ in gross margin, which returned to double-digits.
There has, however, been some ‘hesitancy’ among affordable housing providers to commence new projects due to uncertainty around availability of public funding. As a result, Springfield said some of the affordable housing projects in the group’s pipeline will be initiated slightly later than anticipated. With the recent Scottish budget allocating £768 million to affordable housing supply for 2025/26, the group expects providers to now proceed with new contracts.
Net bank debt at November 30 was £63.6 million (November 30, 2023: £93.4 million).
The group remains confident in meeting market expectations for FY 2025.
Innes Smith, CEO of Springfield Properties, said, “Trading for the first half of the year was in line with our expectations, as homebuyer confidence continued to increase and we progressed delivery of our affordable housing contracts that we won last year. Thanks to the decisive action that we took in FY 2024, we are in a much stronger position and well-placed to address the significant undersupply of housing across all tenures in Scotland.
“We are pleased that the Scottish Government has reconfirmed its commitment to delivering affordable housing, which has been established as one of its top priorities. With last week’s Scottish budget allocating nearly £800 million to be invested in new affordable home supply in 2025/26, this reverses the funding cuts from last year and will give our partners the confidence to progress new contracts in the second half.
“Springfield continues to have one of the largest owned land banks in Scotland, with a high proportion of sites having planning already in place. We have an excellent reputation of offering high quality, energy efficient homes in desirable locations in key housing markets, and a track record of delivering developments exclusively for affordable housing.
“We also have established relationships with key stakeholders across the housing supply chain and we are particularly excited by the discussions we are having about the provision of housing to support the development of new powerlines and the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport in the north of Scotland. As a result, we continue to look to the future with confidence.”
