Record time at Wilson Bowden

Housebuilder Wilson Bowden has unveiled a record half-year result with pre-tax profit jumping to £118m (£92m), a rise of more than 25%.
Chairman David Wilson said: "We continued to sell strongly throughout the first half. We have raised our hurdle rates for land acquisitions and have managed our land bank to deliver significant volume growth over the next few years."
Turnover in the six months to 30 June was £590m (£490m). Residential completions were up by a quarter at 2,500 units.
Selling prices continued to rise during the first half at an average rate of about 10%/ft2 per annum. But, since 1 July there have been signs of an easing in the rate
of increase.
"The average size of houses sold continues to be affected by planning pressures, which push for ever-increasing housing densities," Wilson said. "The effect was that our average house size dropped by 5.9% to 1,202ft2.
"I believe we will have seen the bulk of the impact of the downsizing this year and we hope to maintain an average size of about 1,200ft2 over the next few years, assuming that the ratio of apartments to houses remains similar to the current figure of 20%."
The average selling price rose by 3.4% to £210,000 in the first half (£205,000) as a result of the increase in selling price per ft2, offset in part by the 5.9% reduction in size.
Operating margin was 0.9% higher at 22.1% thanks in part to house prices climbing faster than cost increases.