Miller Homes revenue £500m; profit up 91%

Edinburgh-based Miller Homes said its 2015 revenue rose 29% to £500 million and profit before tax soared 91% to £62 million as low interest rates, improving mortgage availability and strong demand for houses boosted its business.

And Miller said its 2016 order book is already 15% ahead of last year.

“We are continuing to experience a strong selling market with the private sales rate for the first 10 weeks of 2016 being 7% ahead of tough prior year comparatives,” said the company is a statement.

Miller said its revenue was driven by a 14% increase in core completions to 2,153 units and a 14% increase in average selling price to £227,000.

The firm said it has been encouraged by the proposed planning reforms announced by the Government to accelerate planning decisions.

Miller said that the extension of the “Help to Buy” scheme through to 2021 in England and 2019 in Scotland will give continued support for the mainstream new build market, particularly for first time buyers.

The company said land buying conditions “remain attractive” and it increased its investment by 24% in 2015.

“We continued to invest strongly in land with additions of £126 million (2014: £102 million), 24% ahead of last year,” said Miller.

“This, together with planning consents being achieved for a number of controlled sites, resulted in our consented land bank increasing to 11,600 plots (2014: 10,012 plots). ”

Chris Endsor, Miller Homes chief executive, said: “2015 was an outstanding year for Miller Homes which demonstrates the strength of our proposition, our established national footprint and reputation for excellent customer service.

“This resulted in us outperforming on all our key financial metrics.

“Our investment in recent years, combined with new bank facilities, positions Miller Homes for further significant growth.

“We have the operational expertise and financial firepower to grow output by a further 50% to 3,250 units by 2019, and a business plan to deliver upper quartile EBITA growth over the next two years.

“Against favourable market conditions and our well defined growth plans, we are extremely excited about our future.”