Grainger sees profits rise, but sentiment dampened in housing market

6th Aug 2014 08:38

Residential property group Grainger said profits in the 10 months to July were up 20%, but noted a recent cooling of the UK housing market after a strong performance so far this year.While it still expected a continued outperformance of its assets compared to the wider market, it said that measures taken by the Bank of England in the mortgage market and the Mortgage Market Review "have slightly dampened sentiment"."However, we have not yet seen a significant, sustained impact on the market beyond normal seasonal variations," the company said.Sales in the 10 months to 31 July totalled £236.5m, but were down from £258.7m the year before when the top line was helped by sales of tenanted property as part of Grainger's deleveraging programme.However, profits from sales were £71.1m during the period, up from £59.1m the year before.The group said that the improvement in the UK economy has continued and it is still seeing positive movement in house prices in a number of regional markets. However, it has seen some recent "moderating of house-price inflation" in London and the south east."The latest English Housing Survey showed a further increase in the number of households privately renting, now the second largest housing tenure in the UK, underpinning our strategic focus on that part of the housing market, particularly via build to rent."BC