Shares in Irish house builder Glenveagh Properties get welcome respite
Shares in Glenveagh Properties — one of the two stockmarket-listed home builders that have included Cork, Limerick, and Galway in their build plans — rose slightly as the company told its annual shareholders’ meeting it had effectively hit its full-year sales target seven months early.
Shareholders were told the builder had tapped “strong” demand from first-time buyers in the spring buying season for developments around Dublin, and paid €24m for further lands in the greater Dublin area which could deliver a combined 375 homes in the future.
Chief executive Justin Bickle said the builder was confident of meeting market expectations, saying its sales performance “has been welcomed by private buyers and institutional investors”.
However, the rise in the shares comes as a respite for Glenveagh after it and Irish market-listed building rival Cairn Homes, as well as the shares of Irish property firms and Irish banks, have been shunned by investors.
Glenveagh shares trade slightly above year-end levels but have nonetheless fallen 35% from a year ago.
They are also sharply below their debut price on the Irish stock market of late 2017.
Mr Bickle told reporters he hopes the shares will re-rate in time but it cannot control factors that are souring Irish shares such as Brexit.
Glenveagh built 275 of the 18,000 new homes completed in the Republic last year and it had effectively already reached its 2019 target to sell or has agreements with buyers for 725 homes.
Earlier this year Glenveagh, said the industry will struggle for years to meet the huge housing demand.
