By Najat Kantouar

MJ Gleeson backed market guidance after net reservation rates for the first four months of its fiscal year rose, but warned that its performance will be more weighed to the second half than usual.

The low-cost housebuilder and land promoter said Friday that at its homes division net reservation rates--the number of people signing up for new homes--for the period July 1 to Nov. 1 increased to 0.56 per site per week from 0.45 during the same period a year earlier. Excluding bulk reservations, rates were 0.47 and 0.41 respectively per site.

The company added that its homes unit continues to experience margin pressure due to higher sales incentives, increased build costs and limited relief from increasing selling prices. The division expects to open a total of 27 sites during the year, but will be selling overall on a lower average number of sites than last year, with fewer sites in the first half than the second half.

Gleeson said it is experiencing strong demand for consented land from large and medium-sized developers and the board therefore remains confident that this segment will deliver a full-year result materially ahead of last year, with a number of significant sales expected to be completed in the second half.

The company has provided a pretax profit market consensus for the year ending June 30 of 28.1 million pounds ($35.6 million) and dividend of 11.7 pence per share. The company reported a pretax profit of 24.8 million pounds in fiscal 2024 and declared a total dividend of 11.0 pence.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 15, 2024 03:14 ET (08:14 GMT)

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