Scotland’s Springfield toasts record year

Springfield Properties has boosted revenue by a fifth and pretax profit by a tenth as it hails a record year. Scotland’s only listed housebuilder completed 1,242 homes over the year. It also bought up Inverness-based rival Tulloch Homes for £54m and, post-period, housebuilding business of Mactaggart & Mickel. The Tulloch deal ate into gross margins, which fell from 17.9% to 16.8% while revenue climbed from £216.7m to £257.1m. Profit before tax rose 10% to £19.7m. Innes Smith, chief executive, said: “This year we achieved our highest ever annual profit and revenue with strong results across private, affordable and contract housing.” Contract housing revenue doubled to £16.5m, alongside “a milestone with the delivery of our first housing for the private rented sector”. “While the challenging economic backdrop will impact our affordable and PRS housing activity in the short term as we await decisions from the Scottish government, we are on track to deliver another year of revenue and profit growth overall,” Smith added. To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews