With a forward order book stretching out four years, London-based house builder Telford Homes (TEF) now has a development pipeline worth over £875m. That’s up 40 per cent from the previous year, and serves as an illustration of the insatiable demand for apartments and houses close to central London. Further evidence, if needed, came with news that of the 157 apartments in the Stratford Central development, 148 were sold off-plan in four weeks. The development is not expected to complete until March 2018.
Such bubbling demand has transformed the financial metrics. Operating margins have nearly doubled to 17.1 per cent, and gearing has fallen from 47.3 per cent to zero. Pre-tax profits have risen sixfold in the last two years and are expected to more than double again over the next four.