Housebuilder Cairn still confident of reaching sales target

Listed Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes has said it remains confident of achieving it target of 1,000 unit sales by 2019 even though the supply-demand imbalance in the housing market here has become more acute in recent months.

Cairn, which earlier this year became the first Irish homebuilder to float on the stock market since McInerney Holdings in 1997, said given the current strength of its site acquisition pipeline, that it could efficiently deploy the proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) over the coming two quarters.

“The group continues to scale its operations and expects to commence building on a further five housing development schemes during 2016,” it said in an interim management statement.

Cairn said strong progress continues to be made at its 50 acre site in Parkside, Malahide Road, Dublin 13. The group is now sale agreed on 40 houses, with an average sales price of €342,000, with 4 bedroom houses proving particularly attractive. The site now has 56 houses at or near completion, with a further 50 houses at varying stages of completion and 90 per cent of the civil works across the entire first phase are now complete.

It added that progress also continues to be made at its site in Albany, South Dublin, with the group on target for a full scheme sales launch toward the end of the first quarter of 2016, with projected scheme net revenues of €17 million.

In a note to investors, Davy said Cairn had made a good start to trading on the Parkside site in recent months but added that the next 12 months would be key for the company, as much of the anticipated ‘unnatural’ holdings of land are likely to come to the market.

Cairn raised over €400 million in new equity capital in its debut on the London Stock Exchange in June after placing 400,000,000 ordinary shares at €1 per share

The group was set up last year and is chaired by former KBC Bank Ireland boss John Reynolds. It was founded by Scottish accountant Alan McIntosh and Michael Stanley, the company's chief executive.