Housebuilder Gleeson sees strong demand as it regenerates the North

The group is developing 381 new homes on a 31 acre former tar distillery in Swinton, near Mexborough

The Sheffield-based firm specialises in building houses on land that no-one else wants to buy and turning the developments into desirable areas that rejuvenate the local economy.

The group’s chairman Dermot Gleeson told shareholders at the group’s AGM that net reservations rose 20 per cent over the past six months.

“Site activity is high with 14 new sites opened during the last six months. The division currently has 50 active sites, compared with 44 at this time last year and we expect the number to exceed 50 by June 2017.

“Demand remains strong with several of our new sites attracting lengthy queues before opening.“

The group is developing 381 new homes on a 31 acre former tar distillery in Swinton, near Mexborough. Since the site’s closure in the early 1990s it has remained derelict with companies reluctant to develop the land due to the high levels of contaminants in the soil.

Gleeson said that over the past 20 years the land has been an eyesore for local residents, attracting antisocial behaviour and presenting a potential health risk.

It is also building around 200 houses on the former car park at the failed Earth Centre in Doncaster, which was intended to be a world centre for sustainable development, but closed down more than 10 years ago.

Gleeson focuses on helping council house tenants to buy their first home, making house buying an affordable goal for many families.

80 per cent of its houses are sold to council house tenants, which means the council houses can be occupied by people with poorer means.

Gleeson has sites spread across Yorkshire, including Bradford, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield and Barnsley.

Gleeson’’s buyers are typically in their 40s with grown-up children.

Most customers move from within half a mile of their current location so they are near friends and family.

Gleeson said that its developments, which typically offer three-bedroom detached or semi-detached properties, help to bring a sense of pride into areas of industrial decline and social deprivation, which this has a knock-on, beneficial effect on the area.

Mr Gleeson said the Government’s Help to Buy scheme was popular over the past six months, with 65 per cent of customers taking advantage of it.

The firm will soon open a new regional office in Nottingham, increasing its operational reach in the North Midlands and taking the total number of regional offices to seven.

The group said its strategic land division saw strong demand for land and completed the sale of two sites with planning permission for a total of 180 consented plots. It is working on sale negotiations on a further 11 sites.

Gleeson Homes currently has a land pipeline of 9,310 plots, of which 4,667 are owned and 4,643 are conditionally purchased. The group’s chairman Dermot Gleeson said he expects the land division’s results for the year to June 2017 to be broadly in line with results for the previous financial year, with the second half being significantly stronger than the first half.

“Whilst the timing of sales in the Strategic Land division means that the group results for the first six months of the financial year will be slightly below the first half of the prior year, the board remains confident that the result for the full year to 30 June 2017 will be in line with expectations,” he said.