Bovis Homes signs 80m pounds of private-rent housing deals

24th Mar 2014 07:38

Housebuilder Bovis Homes has signed two deals worth 80m pounds to sell about 510 homes to groups planning to rent them out privately.Bovis said it had signed contracts with two separate investors, one of which was accessing funding through the Government's Build to Rent Scheme, to sell new homes under two private rental scheme transactions across a range of sites already owned by the group.Bovis expects about 250 of the homes to legally complete in 2014 with the rest in 2015. It said the housing would be in addition to existing private sales, accelerating the development on each of the sites included without sales risk, with an average profit margin not expected to dilute the group's anticipated operating margin in 2014 and 2015. It said the deals would be another positive contributor to increasing the group's return on capital employed in both 2014 and 2015. Bovis said the deals would give it a strong increase in total 2014 reservations. It now aims to legally complete between 3,650 and 3,850 deals in 2014 including about 250 PRS homes with a further improved forward order book for 2015 including the balancing 250 PRS homes.Return on capital employed is expected to increase strongly to about 15% in 2014 from 10.4% in 2013 with more progress anticipated thereafter.PW