Avant Homes to focus on Central Belt following ‘excellent’ year

Avant-homesAvant Homes has revealed it is to focus on the Central Belt as the housebuilder anticipates record revenues and profits.

The company said total completions for the 12 months to 30 April 2017 were up 35% on the prior year at 1,636, with a strong 31% increase in private completions. Sales showed a year-on-year jump of 44% to £368 million, with the increase attributed in part to “the continuing upward shift in private average selling price (ASP)”.

Colin Lewis, chief executive at Avant, which has its Scottish head office in Stirling and 12 of its 52 outlets north of the Border, acknowledged political uncertainties including the prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum, but said the housing market “remains positive — we still can’t build as many houses as people want to buy. We are confident about our forward view and strategy”.

Sites acquired by Avant in the second half include 100 plots in Cairneyhill, Fife, and Lewis noted that the group operates in the Central Belt, and is unaffected by issues in Aberdeen, for example.



He also said it has opened sites in the east, in Haddington and Newcraighall, and added: “The Central Belt is good for Avant and I hope that Avant is good for the Central Belt so you’ll see hopefully more of us in that area.”

Mr Lewis said: “The strength of Avant’s performance over the last twelve months underlines the success of the strategy we launched to transform the business following our change of ownership in December 2014.

“The record results we have achieved across all metrics have been driven by the strong appeal of our aspirational family homes, designed to give our customers what they want, and the resilience of the markets in which we operate.

“The continued investment in our land supply in prime locations across the Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East and the central belt of Scotland has further strengthened our platform to continue to drive significant growth.



“We are therefore confident of continuing to accelerate our growth and to deliver our milestone of 2,000 homes and £500m of revenues on our journey of growth.”


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