Telford Homes poised to beat forecast, eyes "huge redevelopment potential" in London
London residential property developer Telford Homes is confident of beating full year forecasts and expects to sustain continued growth due to strong demand and inner-city regeneration, chief executive Jon Di Stefano told Digital Look.
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"Demand for non-prime inner London locations looks solid for the long term," Stefano said. "Our commercial property sales have exceeded expectations, partly because we avoided price inflation by completing 98% of our sales at the start of the year."
The regeneration of areas such as Stratford, Kings Cross and Kentish Town has caused ripples in the surrounding property areas, he claimed, which was driving demand in "up-and-coming" parts of the city with good transport links.
Telford's operations span inner London and Stefano argues that the affordability of the company's homes relative to the luxury properties that often surround them helped secured a solid influx of interest from buyers.
Stefano argued the London housing bubble had not hit Telford Homes, as mortgage affordability constraints had kept a lid on prices in the middle market, preventing the swell experienced by 'super-prime' locations over the last two years.
The average price of the group's open market properties in the year to 31 March 2015 was £459,000, safeguarding Telford from a prospective mansion tax as proposed by the Labour party.
When questioned about the impact of the upcoming election on the wider property market, Stefano said: "I think a lot of the hype is over the top. All of the parties agree that we need to build more homes, which is a priority, no-one is proposing to stop that. I'm not convinced that the effect of the mansion tax on prime properties would trickle downwards."
Instead, he named planning permission delays as the biggest challenge the group faces, given their potential to hamper house building. "The shorter the time frame in delivering homes, the easier it is to take advantage of demand," he said.
Stefano said the group had no plans to expand business outside of London because "there's still lots of opportunity - vacant plots and rundown sites with huge redevelopment potential."
Telford, which has forward sold 93% of its properties for the year to 31 March 2016, is due to announce preliminary results for the years ended 31 March 2015 on 27 May.