BTR and student housing specialist reports strong appetite for forward funding
Watkin Jones said its project margins are meeting expectations as it seeks to recover from a profit slump and redundancies last year.
The build-to-rent (BTR) and student housing specialist, in a brief trading update for the half year ending 31 March, said its project margins 鈥渉ave been in line with updated guidance given in January鈥�.
The firm previously said it anticipated gross margins of 12% to 14% in the short term. The firm said an exception to this was a scheme in Exeter where it had incurred extra costs following the liquidation of a contractor.
Watkin Jones said appetite for forward funds is 鈥渃ontinuing to recover鈥�. It said the first half performance of the firm had been driven by contractually secure forward sold developments.
It said: 鈥淸The] underlying residential for rent market continues to perform well with both strong tenant demand and rental growth in our core purpose built student accommodation and BTR sectors.鈥�
It said it expects to sign a number of deals in the second half of the year and has five schemes formally under offer.
The firm however gave no indication of pre-tax profit or income for the half year in the update.
Watkin Jones last year posted a two-thirds drop in profit to 拢18m due largely to a 拢30m provision for building safety remediation work. Its income fell 5% to 拢407m.
Watkin Jones in November announced following the economic turmoil after Liz Truss鈥� mini-budget.
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