Landlord Grainger claims resilience amid subdued housing market

The company said it had made £79.5m of sales in the four months to end-July, and had a further £40.5m worth in solicitors’ hands or exchanged.

This took Grainger’s total sales pipeline for the year to £189.2m, from £154.8m a year ago.

“The resilience and liquidity of our portfolio continue to be evidenced by strong sales in excess of valuation, despite ongoing challenges in the residential market,” said the company.

However, it said the UK economy continued to be subdued and anticipated this would continue in the medium term and would be reflected in the UK residential market.

“The challenges in the market are evidenced by low levels of sales and mortgage approvals but regional variations continue to be apparent with London house prices demonstrating the most buoyancy,” said Grainger.

In the ten months to end-July, Grainger completed sales of 531 vacant housing units for £94.3m, at an estimated trading margin on sales of 39.7 per cent. A year ago it sold 597 units for £90.1m, at a margin of 42.7 per cent.

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ data recently showed England and Wales house prices continued to fall in July, at a slower pace than in June. Its seasonally adjusted house price balance rose to -22 in July, from an upwardly revised -26 in June.

In May, Grainger said it had been selected by Lloyds Banking Group to supply its residential housing platform.

Grainger said it had made “good progress” with integrating the first three Lloyds housing portfolios under the companies’ RAMP agreement, and now had 1,283 units under management.

In May, Grainger said it was confident its portfolio would continue to outperform in a slow market for home sales, and planned to return some cash from its improved first-half profits to shareholders.