CALA Group has increased the number of houses it built last year by 46 per cent, leading it to record turnover of £750 million, up 27 per cent.
The Edinburgh builder completed 1,677 homes in a “hugely important” year for the company, which delivered a fifth consecutive year of record revenue and profit.
Pre-tax profit was up 14 per cent to £68.5m.
But chief executive Alan Brown said the planning system needed to be “more progressive and constructive” if the UK, and Scotland, is to address the current housing shortage.
Cala also backed calls for reform of land and building transaction tax (LBTT), which delivered 55 per cent less revenue than Scottish government expectations.
The high-end builder said its move away from the £1m-plus market had led to a successful reduction in average selling price, which came down eight per cent to £497,000.
The net private reservation rate was up 17 per cent to 0.56 sales per development per week, with an average weekly private revenue per development of £271,000, which Cala said was a “far more meaningful metric” of its sales performance given the size of the group’s average selling price relative to that of its larger peers.
Mr Brown said the company’s three Scottish businesses collectively bring in about one-third of group revenue.
This UK target is to sell 2,500 units per year by 2020, which would deliver revenue north of £1bn. Mr Brown said the company was confident this target would be met, in spite of challenges relating to the planning system and wider economic environment.
The company was heavily critical of planning systems north and south of the Border, though Mr Brown said the “challenging planning environment” had been factored into its 2020 target.
“It could be a lot easier and we could be doing a lot more to help solve the UK and Scottish housing crisis if the planning [system] wasn’t so complicated,” said Mr Brown. “The Scottish situation is easier. The Scottish Government has always understood that for Scotland to remain a growing economy they need to have a solid housing market backed up by good planning.
Mr Brown said he would like to see more direct support from politicians at all levels.
“Government and local authorities should be clear about what their annual targets are in Scotland and then making sure everybody focuses their attention on doing that,” he said.
The company also backed recent calls for changes to LBTT. Homes bought in Scotland pay a higher rate of 10 per cent tax above £325,000. There have recently been calls to extend the five per cent tax rate, which is applied to values of sales from £250,000 to £325,000.
Finance director Graham Reid said: “The tax kicks in far too steeply and it’s having a detrimental impact on tax collection and the market at the higher end, so we would certainly back any call to review it.”
Since year-end, Mr Brown said net reservations were up 34 per cent year-on-year for the first 10 weeks of the financial year.
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