Demand for more space from homebuyers sees sales and profits boom at Cala

Buyers looking for larger living spaces as more people work from home has seen Scottish upmarket housebuilder group Cala achieve record sales of £1.25 billion in 2021.

Despite challenges posed by supply-chain issues across the construction industry, the Edinburgh-headquartered group also completed more than 2,900 homes in 2021, 20 per cent more than in 2019 and 59 per cent more than last year.

Cala’s audited accounts due in March are expected to show a pre-tax profit of around £130 million, an increase of 35 per cent on 2019, which was its last uninterrupted year of trading.

Demand for larger homes as people look for more living space has driven a sales boom at the housebuilder. Picture: contributed.

It recorded an average sale price for homes of £462,000 in 2021, up from the £434,000 recorded last year. The firm has one of the highest selling prices of the top ten major homebuilders outside central London.

The group has also secured its highest private forward reservations position. As at December 31, it had 994 private forward reservations with a gross development value of £488m, up from 443 homes with a total value of £181m in 2019.

Chief executive Kevin Whitaker described it as a “very successful year”. He stated: “Several factors have enabled our excellent financial performance across the 12-month period. In particular, we have seen many people making positive new home choices to seek out larger living spaces and this has driven very strong demand for our homes in aspirational suburban locations.

“While there have been significant supply-chain challenges across the industry, the market has been strong. This, combined with improvements to our operational efficiency and the hard work of our team, has enabled us to deliver an excellent performance across the year.”

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