Glenveagh Properties revenues grow in 'very productive' year

Irish homebuilder Glenveagh Properties revealed details of its "very productive" trading year on Friday, saying it was ahead of schedule in its efforts to deliver on promises made at the time of its IPO.

Glenveagh saw revenues come to €84m for the twelve months ended 31 December, 10% ahead of its previous guidance, and sold 275 homes during the year at an average selling price of €287,000.

The AIM-listed outfit also told investors it anticipates a gross margin of around 18% for the year.

Glenveagh's latest acquisition, a 43-acre land package located in a suburb of Cork City, will allow the firm to build around 500 new housing units - bumping its total space to around 11,850 housing units.

Lastly, Glenveagh said it was in the process of building on fourteen sites across Ireland and would need to wrap up construction on all sites within the year in order to deliver its 2019 target of 725 new homes.

Co-founder and chief executive, Justin Bickle, said: "The past 12 months have been very productive as we set out to create a volume homebuilder for the Irish market."

"The fundamentals of our sector remain strong with continued chronic under-supply of housing in Ireland (both private and public) and a dearth of scale homebuilders."

As of 0920 GMT, Glenveagh's London-listed shares had inched forward 0.35% to €0.72 each.