Housebuilder Cairn Homes has reported a 10.1% increase in its operating profit as its revenues for the year to the end of December rose by 8%.
Cairn Homes posted record revenues of €666.8m last year, up from €617.4m the previous year, while its operating profit rose to to €113.4m from €103m in 2022.
The Cairn Board is proposing a final dividend of 3.2 cent, subject to shareholder approval at its AGM in May for a total full year dividend of 6.3 cent per ordinary share
Cairn said it completed 1,741 sales in the year, an increase of 14% on 2022 sales of 1,526. The average price was €383,000, up from €355,00 the previous year.
The company is active across 20 sites nationwide and said it had over 2,100 new home commencements in 2023, a 21% increase on the previous year.
It said that demand for new homes remains exceptionally high as evidenced by its pipeline of closed and forward sales as at February 28 of 2,473 new homes, an increase of nearly 1,000 new homes in 12 months.
Cairn noted that over 80% of its starter homes are available at prices which are below State support pricing caps. It said this allows more of its prospective customers to qualify for the State's initiatives including the Help to Buy scheme and the First Home shared equity scheme.
The housebuilder started construction on four new sites last yearm including the first phase of 569 new homes at its mixed tenure Seven Mills development at Clonburris in Dublin 22, as well as new developments at Sorrell Wood in Blessington, Piper's Square in Charlestown and Bayly in Douglas, Cork).
It also started new phases of housing and scaled apartment developments at six of its existing developments including Parkside (Balgriffin), Nyne Park (Kilkenny), Castletroy (Limerick), Mercer Vale (Cherrywood), Swanbrook (Navan) and Citywest (Dublin 24).
Michael Stanley, Cairn's CEO, said the company's sustained positive momentum has carried through into 2024 and strong sales since the beginning of the year has seen its closed and forward order book growing further to 2,473 new homes.
"We continue to invest heavily in work in progress as we ramp up delivery across our 20 active construction sites. Cairn will deliver another year of strong growth in volumes, revenue and profitability," the CEO said.
He noted that construction of homes for first time buyers is a core market for Cairn and it delivered over 500 new starter homes at average competitive market prices of just under €400,000 last year.
Michael Stanley said the company is now also a delivery partner for State-supported entities including the LDA, Approved Housing Bodies and Local Authorities, who urgently require delivery of new apartment developments situated close to multi-modal transport hubs, for social and affordable rental homes.
He pointed out that the State currently owns less than 10% of the 2.1 million residential homes in Ireland, a level which materially lags many European peers where State ownership is typically closer to 20%.
"Added to this, the private rental sector is insignificant in scale and uninvestable at present. Unaddressed, this material difference will result in other economies out-competing Ireland, as they are much better positioned to offer secure and affordable rental accommodation to their working population," Mr Stanley said.
"The success of State owned or funded affordable rental supply solutions like Cost Rental (CREL) is now critical to addressing Ireland's housing crisis today and into the future," he added.
Shares in the company were lower in Dublin trade today.
