Residential property owner, Grainger Plc (LON:GRI) reports residential sales of £49.4m for the four month to 31 July 2010.
This takes total sales in the ten months to 31 July to £128.4m. In addition a further £26.4m of sales are in solicitors' hands or have contracts exchanged, giving a total sales pipeline of £154.8m.
The total sales pipeline of £154.8m to the end of July 2010 is lower than last year's equivalent figure of £180m following the strategic decision to reduce significantly the investment sales programme in the second half of the year.
In the first ten months, the Group has sold 593 vacant units for a consideration of £90.1m at a sales margin of 42.6%. The equivalent figures to the end of July 2009 were 625 units for £86m at a margin of 35.5%.
The improvement in margins reflects the overall increase in prices achieved. These sales have been made at values approximately 6.9% above the September 2009 vacant possession values, a period in which the average of the Halifax and Nationwide indices has increased by 3%.
CEO Andrew Cunningham, Chief Executive of Grainger says:"We continue to make strong progress in growing and strengthening the Company and its market leading position.
Our portfolio is continuing to prove to be resilient and we are trading well, despite price growth in the general housing market slowing in the last few months reflecting the economic uncertainty.
"Furthermore we have also taken advantage of market conditions to make well-priced acquisitions which we anticipate will produce good levels of return for our investors in the future."
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