Inland Homes sees profits soar as home and land sales rise

Inland Homes reported a three-fold rise in half-year pre-tax profit on Wednesday on the back of strong land and home sales.

Pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of December 2012 rose to £3.1m from £1.1m for the same period a year earlier.

The UK housebuilder posted revenues of £19.31m, up from £3.66m in 2011, driven by a £15.35m sale of 355 land plots.

During the period, the company made significant progress on housebuilding projects including 146 homes on four developments.

Inland was also awarded planning permission for building 268 homes at Carters Quay in Poole, Dorset.

Net assets increased to £51.7m, compared to £49.4m the previous year. Trading profit for the period grew to £4.3m from £2.3m.

"I am pleased to report an excellent set of interim results," said Chief Executive, Stephen Wicks.

"Gross profit is up by 87.6% and profit before tax has increased by 183% over the corresponding period last year.

"Our development pipeline from both a housebuilding and a land perspective has never been stronger and we are looking forward to substantial further growth over the coming years."

A dividend of 0.067p was paid to shareholders on December 17th and Inland said it expects to recommend a "substantially increased dividend" for the financial year ending June 30th 2013.

RD