Gleeson turnover to drop 40%

Turnover at northern and midlands-focused housebuilder Gleeson will drop by more than 40% in the year to the end of June as the firm counts the cost of the coronavirus lockdown.

The business said in a trading update today that despite progress reopening sites and sales centres, it now expected turnover for the current financial year to drop to £145m, down from £250m last year – a fall of 42%.

Gleeson said it had reopened 62 out of 67 sites as well as more than 40 sales centres, and that housing reservations had now recovered to 70% of pre-covid crisis levels, having fallen to as low as 25% during the height of lockdown.

The firm’s statement said “sites are reopening as planned and customer demand is recovering strongly”, while noting that mortgage valuations had not been so far affected.

However, the builder said it had completed the sale of 1,037 homes so far in the financial year, putting it on course to complete less than 1,100 over the year as a whole. This compares to completions of more than 1,500 homes last year.

Until the covid crisis Gleeson had been delivering against a five-year expansion plan designed to see it building 2,000 homes a year by 2022. However the statement today made clear the impact of the crisis on its expansion plans, as the firm revealed it had opened just three new sites during the final quarter to the financial year, with one more expected before the end of June. Prior to the covid crisis it had expected to open 17 sites during the period.