Bovis stays cautious on recovery

Bovis Homes yesterday said sales prices were "modestly ahead" of expectations after further signs of stabilisation in the UK property market.

Total sales for the year to April 30 rose 11 per cent to 1,208, of

which 643 sales were brought forward from 2009 and 565 sales were achieved in the first 17 weeks of the year.

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Despite the consistent weekly sales performance and improvement on the price of reserved homes, Bovis said it was too early to call a recovery.

Bovis has focused its strategy on investing in new land in order to generate "strong future returns". So far this year, 811 plots have been added to its land bank across seven sites while terms have been agreed in principle on a further 18 sites which will deliver an additional 2,500 plots.

Across last year, Bovis generated 281.5m of revenues from the completion of 1,803 homes. As a result of a reduction in social housing in the mix, the average sales price increased by 3 per cent to 154,600, although for private homes the figure was down 9 per cent to 165,500 – 20 per cent lower than the 2007 average.

It achieved pre-exceptional profits of 7.5m, against 14.4m a year earlier. The company cut overheads by 34 per cent against 2008.