Crest Nicholson makes £39m interim pre-tax profit

The housing market in the first half of 2006 has been stronger than in the same period of last year, said Crest Nicholson's chief executive Stephen Stone this morning.

Crest's interim pre-tax profit (in the six months to 30 April 2006) was £39m, a reduction of £10m over the comparable period last year. Turnover was little changed at £360m.

Stone recently took over the reins at the residential and mixed use development group, succeeding the long serving John Calcutt.

Stone said: “We have secured over 85% of the sales required to meet our [full year] 2006 target and for 2007, we remain on track to deliver a 15% increase in open market completions.”

The average sale price reduced to £190,000 (2005 figure: £210,000) as a result of the increased volume of affordable housing – Crest's completions in this expanding sector were 72% higher at 520.

The group's short-term housing land bank has moved higher to 16,300 plots, representing around five-years-worth of supply.

Since the end of the six-month financial period, Crest has bought a major new residential development site in West Lothian. It has outline planning permissions for 2,000 units, with options that could lift this figure to 3,000.

Crest's design innovation brought it success in the government's competition for new houses that cost less than £60,000 to build. On the back of its “SixtyK” submission, Crest has secured build sites at Newport Pagnell and Maidstone which offer a total of 216 plots.