Cairn Homes has posted total revenues of €40.9m for 2016, rising from just €3.7m the previous year as it continues to ramp up its building output to take advantage of the demand for houses in Ireland.
The Irish house building company reported an operating profit of €3.6m for the year, reversing a €3.8m operating loss in 2015.
Having complete 105 houses for the year, it earned gross profits of just over €7m, making for a gross profit margin of 17%.
On foot of the results, Cairn confirmed its intention to seek a primary listing on the Irish stock exchange later this year.
The young firm floated on the London Stock Exchange just under two years ago and raised very significant capital there to acquire well-placed land banks in the Greater Dublin Area.
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Cairn is currently working on seven sites there and is forward-selling nearly 20 of those homes per week – that’s double the rate in the final months of 2016 and nearly six times the rate late last summer.
Cairn expects to complete up to 400 housing units this year, 850 next year and 1200 houses and apartments in 2019.
That's roughly 10% of the anticipated new housing stock that year.
Chief executive Michael Stanley said:
"We have made significant progress during 2016, both in terms of construction activity and sales performance. We are now building on seven sites in the Greater Dublin Area, with additional sites due to commence later this year.
"The company is today supporting over 1,000 new construction jobs.
"Our rate of forward sales has accelerated significantly in the early part of 2017, with forward sales today standing at 301 units, with a gross sales value of €121.2 million.
"Looking forward, Cairn will be selling homes at six individual developments by autumn 2017.
"We believe that this expansion is well timed, as the supply/demand imbalance for new homes, particularly in the Greater Dublin Area, where the vast majority of our land bank is located, remains as stark as it was at the time of our IPO.
"2017 will be a transformative year for Cairn, and with strengthening mortgage backed demand, we now expect to close between 375 and 400 units in the current year.
"This underpins our confidence in achieving our 2018 and 2019 targets of in excess of 850 units and 1,200 units respectively."
