A thaw despite the autumn outside

The long winter was not particularly kind to developers, contributing to delays on many building sites. However, the graphs of sales levels have not tailed off, with the biggest developers managing to sell as many apartments in the first half of this year as in the whole of 2009.

The bars climb up

Legnica-based company Gant Development sold 564 homes in the first eight months of this year, whereas in the whole of 2009 it only found buyers for 531 residences. It now expects to sell 994 units this year. Another 160 homes developed by this company found buyers in July and August. “September is usually a better month for sales, so we expect to sell 100 units. Currently flats sized 35-55 sqm are selling the best. We hope that next year we will also see an increasing interest in homes under construction, not only in those that have already been completed,” comments Karol Antkowiak, CEO of Gant. Interest in Dom Development’s projects is also growing. In H1 2010, the company had net sales of 655 residences, which was 150 pct more than in the same period of 2009. The developer is currently building eight residential projects with 1,498 units. Its competitor from Legnica has 1,045 homes under construction, with the number to grow to 1,596 next year. By the end of the year, Gant Development is to start the construction phases of four projects in Wrocław and Polanica-Zdrój (32 semi-detached houses and 414 apartments). Meanwhile, Dom Development is extending its land bank. Its current base allows for the development of 6,778 residential units. In Q1 this year, the developer bought two new sites on the left-bank of Warsaw. Another capital city based developer, J.W. Construction, sold 107 homes in August, excluding cancellations. In July the number was 117 and in H1 556. The company is still expecting to sell a total of app. 1,300 units this year.

Autumn relief

Are the worst times over? “H2 will be considerably better with regard to sales than the first. August, in which we sold 131 homes, is already a sign of this. We assumed that monthly sales would amount to 100 units this year. But if the current trend continues, we will be able to sell as many as 1,000 by the end of this year, and not 800 as we initially assumed,” claims Wojciech Ciurzyński, president of the management board of Polnord. It currently has 1,500 units under construction and should start work on another 400 this year in Lublin, Warsaw and in two projects in Gdańsk. By the end of August the developer had found buyers for 471 residences this year.

Sales versus financial results

In H1 2010, Grupa Developerska Robyg sold 287 homes, nearly as many as in the whole of last year when it found buyers for 290 units. Its financial results are also the best in its history, with net profits reaching nearly PLN 19.5 mln after six months – three times as high as for the whole of 2009, and even higher than the profit of the last two years put together. Revenues in H1 this year came to just over PLN 141 mln – app. 40 pct higher than for the whole of last year. In the same period, Polnord generated a net profit of PLN 25.95 mln, compared to PLN 15.4 mln a year earlier. Its revenues were PLN 96.35 mln, down from PLN 103.55 mln in H1 2009. Meanwhile, the sales revenues of Dom Development were calculated at PLN 302.7 mln and its net profit at PLN 25 mln. Gant Development has now amended its financial forecasts for this year. The company now expects to generate revenues at the level of PLN 256.5 mln – 18 pct less than in its original estimates. The developer has also changed its estimates for the next year. It is now predicting revenues of PLN 478.42 mln, up from the PLN 427.28 mln forecast earlier (a growth of 12 pct). Meanwhile, J.W. Construction could boast a higher net profit than in the same period of 2009. In H1 this year the net profit of the company amounted to PLN 30.66 mln (PLN 26.99 mln in H1 2009). However, the net sales revenues generated by the company were lower than last year: for the first six months of this year they amounted to app. PLN 241.15 mln, compared to the PLN 331 mln earned a year earlier. The directors of Ronson Development are also not particularly satisfied with the results generated in H1. While revenues grew by 18 pct on H1 2009, up to PLN 49.5 mln, its net profit amounted to PLN 2.6 mln. A year earlier it was PLN 6.1 mln. The company accounts for the temporary drop as a result of depreciation expense deduction. At the end of June it had 154 units on offer; however, in July and August the developer launched the sale of more projects in Warsaw, Łomianki and Wrocław. This means that its offer will grow to  656 residences – a record number for the company.

Mladen Petrov