Homebuilder Glenveagh Properties has reported lower revenues and profits for the six months to the end of June but reiterated its full year guidance.
Revenues for the half year fell by 14% to €171.6m from €200m the same time last year while its profit before tax slumped by 89% to €1.4m from €13m.
The company said its profitability was impacted mainly by lower urban revenues, reflecting a higher comparative last year that included about €63m from the disposal of the East Road site, along with increased financing costs.
Half year revenues from Glenveagh's Suburban unit increased by 23% to €109.7m, while its Urban unit saw a 44% drop in revenue to €61.9m.
Meanwhile, H1 gross profits at its Suburban unit rose by 33% to €20.5m, but gross profits at its Urban unit slumped 57% to €7.5m.
Stephen Garvey, CEO of Glenveagh, said, "One main challenge that we faced turning into 2023 was that no planning permission had come through for us in 2022. The business had three main objectives; get planning through, get our partnerships up and running and get NUA."
He told Morning Ireland that by the end of 2024, the group will have 70% of its entire land portfolio shovel ready to deliver.
Glenveagh is currently active on 24 suburban and urban sites, including all of its large suburban sites required for 2024 delivery.
It also said that it has been granted permissions for about 4,000 units so far this year, some 700 of which are currently in post-grant appeal periods.
During the six month period, the homebuilder reported 333 suburban completions, up 30% from the 257 the same time last year.
It said the Average Selling Price (ASP) of these homes was about €324,000, down from €332,000 the same time last year.
Mr Garvey supports the call of the Construction Industry Federation for the allocation of funding to ease bottlenecks across planning, saying the planning system is critically under-resourced.
"We need to fix policy. We need to fix the system, but most importantly we need to have the resources," he said. "If we put the right tools in place, we need the people to administer. I would encourage the Government to put people in local authorities and An Bord Pleánála.
"We also need to put more resources into our utility companies so that we can deliver a sustainable amount of houses in the future," he stated.
In the firm's partnerships business segment, enabling works have now commenced on both its Ballymastone and Oscar Traynor Road sites.
The CEO said this is the platform for the Government to deliver large scale, rapid delivery of modern, mixed tenure housing going forward. "We think this is a big opportunity for both private and public sector to work together to deliver more housing into the future," he stated.
The company said its share buyback programme, initiated in January 2023, was completed in August with about €63m returned to shareholders, bringing overall returns to over €300m since May 2021.
Glenveagh said it continues to see a very positive long-term demand outlook for the Irish residential housing market.
"Strong private demand is underpinned by a robust economic environment, a fast-growing population and supportive demand-side initiatives from the Government," it added.
"The outlook across Glenveagh's businesses is favourable and the opportunities are compelling," the company's chief executive Stephen Garvey said.
"We are ideally placed to serve what continues to be strong private demand, in addition to working constructively with State agencies on supply-side initiatives. Accelerating the provision of new housing is critical to help sustain economic strength and to accommodate our young and fast-growing population," he added.
Shares in the company were higher in Dublin trade today.
