Dublin-based Ely Property Group has reported a sharp increase in profit in its first set of results following the company's listing on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

For the 14-month period to December 31st, 2005, the investment property group saw its profit after taxes increase to €1.3 million, or 0.0055 cent per ordinary share, from €854,658, or 0.003 cent per ordinary share, in the previous 12-month period.

Ely, which was listed on AIM last August, also saw its turnover jump 213 per cent from the previous period to €4.5 million from €1.4 million.

Ely chairman Laurence Davis said the company's growth had been fed by expansion into the UK property market and tax incentive-driven services in the Republic.

The company's areas of business comprise student accommodation, residential sale and leaseback, healthcare and property management.

Ely's Irish student accommodation portfolio increased from 71 beds in 2004 to 796 beds in 2005.

An additional 200 beds under development on the Dundalk Institute of Technology are slated to be finished in August 2006.

Ely has branched into the UK market with two sites at Islington in London and Maidstone in Kent that it hopes will yield another 271 beds.

The number of units the firm sold and leased back also increased from 18 in 2004 to 176 in 2005.

The company referred to its sales and leaseback area as "an important long-term and sustainable revenue stream" as each block generates a 10-year revenue line.

The number of property units under management grew from 18 units in 2004 to more than 400 in 2005.

It also added another 11 units, or more than 48,000 square feet, of commercial space.

In the healthcare sector, Ely has been contracted to develop a day-care hospital in Dublin and has partner with Creative Education Corporation to develop 25 creches across the Republic in 2006.