CALA Group (Holdings) Limited, one of the UK’s leading homebuilders, today issues preliminary results for the twelve months to 31 December 2021, ahead of audited accounts to be finalised in March.

CALA Homes North Home Counties region currently has ten live developments across the region, spanning Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

Looking forward to 2022, CALA Homes North Home Counties is set to launch three new sites across the region, in Hertfordshire (Hitchin and Hertford), and Huntingdonshire (Alconbury), which will deliver a more diverse range of high quality homes across the region for years to come.

Financial highlights

Strong trading performance, expected to deliver revenue of £1.25bn for the first time
Homebuilder anticipates pre-tax profit of c. £130m, an increase of 35% on 2019
CALA expects to be one of the only major homebuilders to rebound strongly enough to increase housing delivery compared to the last uninterrupted year of trading, 2019
Total home completions of 2,904 – an increase of 19% on the 2019 total of 2,449 units (59% on the 2020 total of 1,835 units)
Sales per site per week for 2021 were 0.76, this compares to 0.53 in 2019 and 0.51 achieved in 2020
The business recorded a private average sales price (ASP) of £462,000 in 2021
CALA entered new financial year with its strongest ever forward private reservations – £488m Gross Development Value (GDV) from 994 units

Kevin Whitaker, CEO at CALA Group, said:

“2021 has been a very successful year for the business, during which we have strongly rebounded to significantly exceed pre-pandemic 2019 volumes, revenue and pre-tax profit. Several factors have enabled our excellent financial performance across the 12-month period. In particular, we have seen many people making positive new home choices to seek out larger living spaces and this has driven very strong demand for our homes in aspirational suburban locations.

“While there have been significant supply chain challenges across the industry, the market has been strong. This, combined with improvements to our operational efficiency and the hard work of our team, has enabled us to deliver an excellent performance across the year. We expect to be one of the only major homebuilders to deliver new home completions in excess of pre-pandemic levels, with 2021 sales 19% up on 2019.

“Looking ahead to 2022 we are positive about our prospects. We enter the year with record forward private reservations, equating to a GDV of £488m. This year we plan to increase our housing delivery further still – building more than 3,200 homes across our eight regional operations. We have a strong short-term land bank to underpin the delivery of our current business plan and continue to invest heavily in land as we look towards our medium-term ambition of reaching a revenue of £1.8bn by 2026.”

Strong performance lays foundations for further growth

Strong market conditions have driven an excellent year of trading for CALA, with key performance metrics measuring upticks on the previous two years. Across 2021, the business saw sales per site per week rise to 0.76 from the 0.53 achieved in 2019 (2020: 0.51).

In addition to rising turnover, profit before tax and new home completions, the business also secured its highest private forward reservations position to date in the period. As at 31st December 2021, the Group had secured 994 private forward reservations with a Gross Development Value of £488m, increased from 443 homes (£181m GDV) in 2019.

Sustainable growth strategy

CALA is committed to achieving its ambitious growth targets while operating its business in a sustainable way.

To that end, the business launched a sustainability strategy in 2021, to provide a structured approach to achieving its targets of building homes for its customers that are operationally net zero carbon from 2030, and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Scottish Government’s 2045 target and ahead of UK Government’s 2050 target.

The business is currently finalising ambitious science-based targets, validated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative.