Avant Homes’ profit halves despite ‘solid performance’

Avant Homes, the Chesterfield-based housebuilder, saw its pre-tax profit halve in the year to 3 May 2019, according to documents lodged last month with Companies House.

The group posted a pre-tax profit of just under £17m, versus £35m the year before, on turnover up nearly 10% at £483m. Avant’s sales-related costs rose by nearly £50m to £398m.

Despite the profit slump, Avant said it had delivered a solid performance during the year, with the UK housing market underpinned by a supply shortage, and rising demand buoyed by growing confidence among consumers. Good mortgage availability and a planning system that favoured its activities also helped, it said.

Operating profit dipped from £62m in 2018 to £48m last year.

Avant sold a total of 1,953 homes in the period, 6% up on the previous year, at an average selling price of £271,000 for its private sale properties, while the average selling price for the 221 social housing units it sold rose 4% to £96,000.

A spokesperson for Avant said the firm had delivered continued growth in 2019, with volumes up 6% and revenues increasing 10%. “We continued to invest in our platform for growth and deliver against our strategy, albeit, in-line with our peers, we faced some margin pressure which impacted profits.

“We have made encouraging progress in the current financial year (to 30 April 2020) with record sales in the period and positive results from initiatives taken to mitigate against margin pressures faced in 2019. We remain confident that our strategy will enable us to deliver on our growth ambitions over the medium-term.”

Employing nearly 800 staff, Avant is active across the North of England, the Midlands and Scotland, aiming its  three-, four- and five-bedroom homes at ”aspirational” families. Only 3% of its total sales are flats.

Its current schemes include a £61m 224-home development in Wakefield, which it is due to complete by the end of 2022.

The group has also been bolstering its management team, last week announcing it had appointed ex-Keepmoat executive Paul Devaney as its new commercial director.