In the 14 month period completions reached 2,301 (2,134 in the previous 12 months), revenue £725 million (£671.6 million) and profit before tax of £43.4 million (£58.1 million) with around £17 million of exceptional costs incurred during the period, mainly representing the cost of land which will no longer be developed net of any residual land value to be recovered, redundancy costs and consultants' fees in relation to the firm’s strategic review.
Average selling price rose to £308,000 from £300,000.
John Tonkiss, CEO, comments: "The group's new strategy has driven a solid FY19 trading performance in a difficult market. We have a strong balance sheet, a continued focus on delivery of operational improvements across our business and an ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality developments and five-star customer satisfaction.
"We are also making excellent progress across our key strategic initiatives as set out in September 2018, particularly rental, where our initial pilots have confirmed a strong demand for renting in later life. This is a hugely positive step for the business as it enables our business model to become more resilient and ensures we are in a strong position to capitalise on future market recovery."
In all 169 multi-tenure transactions were completed during the period (101 rental units, 47 part buy part rent transactions and 21 under rent to buy). The multi-tenure offering is live across all McStone’s developments with a total of 175 rental, 43 rent to buy and 75 part buy part rent reservations achieved since the commencement of this initiative.
The firm also said it has made good progress on the group's build cost reduction initiative with identified savings of £10,000 per unit on FY21 schemes.
McStone said: “Good progress has been made with the group's three long term strategic initiatives designed to leverage the long term opportunities in this sector.
"Choice of tenure, where the new rental proposition is gaining significant momentum. Flexibility of services, where the group has now taken full ownership of its care and services operation and is therefore now one of the largest operators in the Housing with Care sector; and Affordability of product, with the group's first development using modern methods of construction (MMC) set to start construction during FY20.”
