Barrat Developments (LON: BDEV) share price is climbing on Thursday after it said a strong operational performance has increased expected full-year completions.
From 1 January to 2 May, the company said it delivered 4,481 total home completions, a rise from the 3,504 seen in 2020. Barratt stated that the increase in completions reflects the delivery of customers' homes in line with the Help to Buy scheme and the stamp duty holiday deadlines.
Barratt now expects to increase wholly owned completions to between 16,000 and 16,250 homes this year, along with around 650 JV home completions.
Net private reservations per active outlet per average week rose to 0.83 from 0.52 in 2020.
The group is also fully forward sold for 2021 with total forward sales (including JVs) of £3.7 billion. Barratt said its construction activity is also progressing well, with an average of 321 equivalent homes (including JVs) built per average week in the period.
The company will pay an interim dividend of 7.5p per share on Monday, 10 May 2021.
Barratt Developments CEO, David Thomas, commented: “We have seen strong demand for our high quality, energy efficient homes on well-designed developments which means we now expect to increase wholly owned completions to between 16,000 and 16,250 homes this year, along with around 650 JV home completions.
“As construction activity has increased our employees and sub-contractors have worked hard to maintain our high standards of quality and service and we are proud that for the 12th successive year, our customers have rated us as a 5 star housebuilder.”
Barratt's share price has climbed 2.13% to 782p so far on Thursday.
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