Cairn Homes' revenues and profits for 2020 drop

Cairn Homes CEO Michael Stanley

Homebuilder Cairn Homes has reported lower revenues and profits for 2020 on the back of Covid-19 enforced site closures but said it remained "very positive and ambitious" for its future growth prospects.

Cairn Homes said its revenues for the year fell to €261.9m from €435.3m in 2019.

This included €246.9m from 743 closed sales, down from €401.8m from 1,080 closed sales the previous year.

It noted that its houses had an average selling price of €332,000, a decrease from the figure of  €372,000 in 2019.

Cairn said its profit after tax sank to €12.7m from €51.2m, which resulted in earnings per share of 1.7 cent, down from 6.5 cent the previous year.

The company said that the housing market in Ireland remains characterised by continuing structural undersupply and strong, mortgage-backed demand boosted by increased savings over the last 12 months.

It anticipates that construction sites will fully reopen in Ireland on April 6 and is planning to commence construction on up to seven new sites this year.

"Our construction sites have been closed since the start of the year and assuming they fully reopen on April 6, Cairn's construction activities will be limited to just over eight months in the current year.

"This will have an impact on the number of new homes which we will be able to build and sell in 2021," it added.

At the start of the year and before the current lockdown, Cairn anticipated delivering 2,500 sales between 2021 and 2022.

It said it remains confident that over this timeframe to the end of 2022, its two year target of 2,500 closed sales is achievable in a 20 month production cycle.

Michael Stanley, Cairn's co-founder and CEO, said the country's housing crisis has now further deteriorated.

"As an appropriate response to any crisis, key stakeholders, whether in the private or public sector, urgently need to respond and be encouraged and supported to deliver homes for the over 500,000 people in Ireland today who have little or no prospect of affordable home ownership," Mr Stanley said.

"All delivery platforms working in parallel can resolve this problem," he added.

Shares in the company moved higher in Dublin trade today.