McCarthy & Stone cautious about future despite 10% profit rise

Retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone gave a cautious view of its outlook in the second half after it reported higher earnings in the first half.

In the six months to February, the group's pretax profit rose 10% to £48.3m from £44.1m last time.

Turnover grew 18% to £131m after average sales price of its units increased 16% to £165,400. 

Keith Lovelock, chairman and chief executive, said he was pleased with the results which were achieved at the back of "challenging" trading conditions.

The market remains "testing" and "restrained" as prospective buyers take longer to commit to reservations due to uncertainties created by the general election and concerns over the future direction of interest rates.

"Although we expect selling price strength to continue to offset volume softness to a significant degree, we are slightly more cautious in relation to the expected results for the second half," he added.

Forward level of reservations is currently "comfortably ahead" of last year's, but unit forward sales were lower than the figures 12 months ago, the company said.