McCarthy & Stone (MCS) has been around for some time, but only returned to the London Stock Exchange in November last year. Trading was strong for the retirement home specialist in the year to August 2016, although the past few months were affected by the referendum vote and a subsequent fall in the number of retired homeowners opting to downsize to a purpose-built retirement apartment.
Consequently, the forward order book fell from £131m to £114m, but trading in the first 10 weeks of the new financial year has seen reservations improving. By September, weekly reservation rates had risen by 13 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, helped by the release of three additional sales releases, and by 12 November the forward order book was back ahead of the 12-month prior figure at £250m.