Property developer and investor Henry Boot has announced a five per cent rise in its interim dividend on good sales and a better outlook for the property market.
Its the second time the developer has upped its dividend this year – in March, it proposed a final dividend of 4.40p, an increase of 10.0 per cent. Its interim dividend will be 3.08p.
In its half-year results, Boot said that it achieved total land and property sales of £150.8m, up 16 per cent from £129.3m last year, reflecting “growing demand for prime projects and buildings as sentiment in markets began to improve”.
The London-listed firm, which is headquartered in Sheffield, is engaged in property investment, developed, construction and land promotion.
Its total land bank grew marginally to 101,491 plots, from 100,972 plots in December 2023. It said 7,990 plots had planning permission while a further 13,392 had submitted for permission.
On Monday, Henry Boot announced the sale of nearly 500 plots of land to housebuilder Barratt, in a significant step toward its goal of selling 3,000 plots this year.
The market value of its investment portfolio grew by 0.3 per cent to £113.2m, with a total property return of 2.7 per cent in the six month period, it said.
The construction segment achieved turnover of £43.5m, down from £56.2m last year, with an operating profit of £2.9m, down from £4.4m.
Tim Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, said: “During the first half of the year we have started to see an improvement in our markets and this together with our focus on prime land and development, plus premium homes has helped us to achieve relatively strong property sales.
“The lower forward sales with which we started the year has affected our first half financial performance and as flagged at the time of our 2023 results, we expect 2024 to be heavily weighted towards the second half… we remain on track to perform in line with market expectations for the full year.
“Furthermore, we remain confident in our key markets, and have significant latent value in our development and land portfolio which is held at cost, as well as plenty of opportunity to grow in order to meet our stated medium term targets. This together with our rock solid balance sheet underpins our decision to raise the interim dividend by five per cent.”