Telford Homes expects more London demand

Residential developer Telford Homes said it expected strong demand for London housing after it reported forward sales of more than half its development pipeline.

The home builder said the total value of all forward sales secured and due for completion in the year to 31 March 2016 onwards exceeded £620m, more than three and a half times the revenue reported last year. Its development pipeline through to 2019 remained at about £1.1bn.

Teleford chief executive Jon Di-Stefano said in a pre-AGM update he expected demand in London to remain high and government policy moves were encouraging.

“The board welcomes the recent measures outlined by the new government to improve the planning process particularly the intention to remove unnecessary delays, devolving more power to the Mayor of London and speeding up the process for brownfield land.”

Shore Capital said there was scope for Telford’s development pipeline to be expanded, and noted demand in the affordable parts of London was strong.

“While we could understand potential concerns over the revised tax rules for buy-to-let in the budget, we do not see even this materially affecting future sales.”