Deeside based Redrow upbeat despite 15% drop in profits

The chairman of Deeside based Redrow has said the housebuilder traded strongly despite an “uncertain political and economic background” in the first half of its financial year.

Redrow said the housing market has been affected by political uncertainty around Brexit and during the run-up to the general election which has impacted on the time taken to close new homes’ sales.

The company revealed a 15 per cent drop in pre-tax profit in the six months to December 31, revenue dropped 10 per cent to £870m for the same period –  due to a reduction in legal completions.

At the end of December 2019, Redrow had a total order book of £1.2bn, in line with last year’s record level.

“With our very strong order book, a promising start to the second-half and a more stable political outlook, prospects are encouraging and I am confident this will be another year of progress for Redrow.” The company said.

John Tutte, Executive Chairman of Redrow, said

“Redrow has once again delivered a robust operational and financial set of results for the first-half of the financial year and traded strongly despite an uncertain political and economic background.  The results are consistent with our expectations highlighted in September, that returns will be considerably more weighted than usual to the second-half due to constrained outlet growth last year and the timing of apartment block completions.

 We secured a record number of private reservations in the six months to the end of December and the value of our total forward order book was maintained at December 2018’s record level and closed 15% ahead of the opening position at the beginning of July.”