News: Harworth sees sustained demand
Commercial projects close to its Rotherham base are giving bosses at Harworth Group plc confidence in its strategy.
The leading regenerator of land and property for sustainable development and investment has posted its latest financial results and says that it is on track to become a £1bn business by 2027 despite some difficult trading conditions.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Harworth is based close to its flagship Waverley development and is a specialist in brownfield regeneration, owning and managing approximately 15,000 acres on around 100 sites in the North of England and the Midlands.
For the six months ended 30 June 2023 Harworth reported an underlying operating profit of £8m, down from the £99.9m reported in the same period of 2022. Shareholder value, known as EPRA NDV, was slightly down £631.2m. The company has an ambitious strategy goal to reach £1bn of EPRA NDV over five to seven years.
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive of Harworth Group, said: “Harworth’s first half performance reflected good progress against strategic objectives, coupled with a strong operational delivery, which highlights the resilience of our through-the-cycle model, and sustained demand for our serviced residential land and industrial & logistics assets.
“In particular, the combination of sales of more mature industrial & logistics sites and our development of new high-specification space has accelerated the transition of our Investment Portfolio towards our goal of 100% Grade A.
“The industrial & logistics market has stabilised over the period, albeit transactions are taking longer to complete, and the residential Build-to-Rent market is experiencing sustained demand.
“However, interest rate rises, cost inflation and planning delays are all impacting the housebuilders. House prices have remained reasonably resilient supported by reduced volumes of new build.”
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The Adcanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Waverley is a key project helping Harworth reach that 100% Grade A target. The former UK Coal Orgreave site has consent for 2.1m sq ft of industrial & logistics space with 1.6m sq ft built or sold.
Current progress sees Harworth on-site with 166,000 sq ft of space, which is 44% pre-let. The speculative development has "received significant occupier interest."
The update also stated: "Our focus for 2023 will be on built-to-suit and pre-let direct development opportunities, as well as land sales to potential occupiers. In line with this strategy, we have pre-let a 73,000 sq. ft unit at the AMP to a technology occupier and are in advanced discussions on build-to-suit opportunities with other potential occupiers at the site."
Rothbiz has reported recently on new potential deals to enable Vulcan Engineering, Danieli and Insight to expand onto the AMP. On the residential part of the Waverley site, where consent has been secured for 3,038 residential units, Harworth has sold land for 2,442 units.
However, the report adds that valuation losses were "driven by the impact of selling costs and higher levels of estimated future site-wide infrastructure costs allocated to prior period sales, in particular at our Waverley site where increased costs were driven by a change in the site masterplan."
As housebuilding continues, plans were recently submitted for a reduced mixed use scheme at Olive Lane.
Harworth Group website
Images: Harworth Group
The leading regenerator of land and property for sustainable development and investment has posted its latest financial results and says that it is on track to become a £1bn business by 2027 despite some difficult trading conditions.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Harworth is based close to its flagship Waverley development and is a specialist in brownfield regeneration, owning and managing approximately 15,000 acres on around 100 sites in the North of England and the Midlands.
For the six months ended 30 June 2023 Harworth reported an underlying operating profit of £8m, down from the £99.9m reported in the same period of 2022. Shareholder value, known as EPRA NDV, was slightly down £631.2m. The company has an ambitious strategy goal to reach £1bn of EPRA NDV over five to seven years.
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive of Harworth Group, said: “Harworth’s first half performance reflected good progress against strategic objectives, coupled with a strong operational delivery, which highlights the resilience of our through-the-cycle model, and sustained demand for our serviced residential land and industrial & logistics assets.
“In particular, the combination of sales of more mature industrial & logistics sites and our development of new high-specification space has accelerated the transition of our Investment Portfolio towards our goal of 100% Grade A.
“The industrial & logistics market has stabilised over the period, albeit transactions are taking longer to complete, and the residential Build-to-Rent market is experiencing sustained demand.
“However, interest rate rises, cost inflation and planning delays are all impacting the housebuilders. House prices have remained reasonably resilient supported by reduced volumes of new build.”
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The Adcanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Waverley is a key project helping Harworth reach that 100% Grade A target. The former UK Coal Orgreave site has consent for 2.1m sq ft of industrial & logistics space with 1.6m sq ft built or sold.
Current progress sees Harworth on-site with 166,000 sq ft of space, which is 44% pre-let. The speculative development has "received significant occupier interest."
The update also stated: "Our focus for 2023 will be on built-to-suit and pre-let direct development opportunities, as well as land sales to potential occupiers. In line with this strategy, we have pre-let a 73,000 sq. ft unit at the AMP to a technology occupier and are in advanced discussions on build-to-suit opportunities with other potential occupiers at the site."
Rothbiz has reported recently on new potential deals to enable Vulcan Engineering, Danieli and Insight to expand onto the AMP. On the residential part of the Waverley site, where consent has been secured for 3,038 residential units, Harworth has sold land for 2,442 units.
However, the report adds that valuation losses were "driven by the impact of selling costs and higher levels of estimated future site-wide infrastructure costs allocated to prior period sales, in particular at our Waverley site where increased costs were driven by a change in the site masterplan."
As housebuilding continues, plans were recently submitted for a reduced mixed use scheme at Olive Lane.
Harworth Group website
Images: Harworth Group
7 comments:
I'd be a bit gutted if I'd bought one of those houses in the photo.
Yes, they do tend to spoil the view of the factories
Trivialising people misery, gutter comment!
Given what is happening in the world at the moment, the view from your living room window really is trivial.
Maybe for you, but in your own mind you're always right. Put yourself in the situation and your opinion will change in a heart beat. It's not just the view either, air and noise polutuon are a couple of extras to throw in along with decimating their house values.
Are we to take it that you own one of the houses that have had their prices decimated?
You're a bit of a humourless sort of guy don't you think?
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