Henry Boot delivered a resilient performance in 2025 against a backdrop of continued economic and political uncertainty. Hallam Land performed particularly well, achieving a record number of plot sales and making excellent strategic progress in the acceleration of planning applications to grow its consented land bank. However, our performance was impacted by slower house sales and some cost overruns at Stonebridge Homes. We took important steps to further simplify the group and sharpen our strategic focus, through the sale of Henry Boot Construction, and the planned increase in our ownership of Stonebridge Homes. These actions, together with the launch of our Future Ways of Working programme, are improving efficiencies, enhancing collaboration across the group and creating a strong platform for future growth. As we progress into 2026, we are encouraged by the strong, sustained demand for our high quality residential land and the signs of improvement at Stonebridge Homes, where sales rates have strengthened, although due to the timing of key transactions, we expect the group’s performance to be once again second half weighted. Underpinned by our strong balance sheet, an increasingly supportive planning environment, and a development pipeline filled with opportunity, we are well positioned to meet full year market expectations, assuming the conflict in the Middle East is not prolonged. Over the medium term we are confident the group can deliver significant value for shareholders.
Tim Roberts, CEO of Henry Boot- Financial highlights
Total land and property sales of £356m, our share at £193m (2024: £347m: £224m our share), highlights particularly strong demand from housebuilders for our high quality residential land - Revenue marginally lower at £307.0m (2024: £325.8m) due to reduced turnover in our home building segment, partially offset by higher land promotion sales
- Profit before tax, including initial profit recognition on disposal of Henry Boot Construction (HBC), broadly in line with market expectations at £29.1m (2024: £30.7m), supported by record plot sales. Profit before tax from continuing operations £26.4m (2024: £28.4m)
- Return on capital employed (ROCE) of 7.5% (2024: 8.0%) before revised classification of the group’s main borrowing facility (based on revised classification ROCE was 6.2% (2024: 6.8%)). We remain confident in the group’s potential to deliver attractive returns over the medium term.
- We remain confident in the group’s potential to deliver attractive returns over the medium term
- Net Asset Value (NAV) per share, excluding the defined benefit pension scheme surplus, broadly unchanged at 312p (2024: 312p), after completion of the first tranche of the Stonebridge Homes (SBH) acquisition
- Net debt at December 2025 was £108.0m (2024: £62.7m) with gearing at 25.7% (2024: 14.7%) as a result of the investment in SBH land bank to support future growth and the reduction in cash from the sale of HBC
- Proposed final dividend of 4.62p (2024: 4.62p), bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.86p (2024: 7.70p), an increase of 2.1%
Operational highlights
Land promotion
- Hallam Land achieved record sales of 3,957 plots (2024: 2,661), increasing operating profit by 35% to £32.9m (2024: £24.3m)
- During the year, consents were secured on 4,159 plots (2024: 2,982), increasing the total plots with planning permission to 9,024 (2024: 8,822), all held at cost. Further 19,580 plots await planning determination (2024: 13,146)
- Positive changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) resulted in a focus to materially accelerate planning applications, with c.11,000 plots submitted in 2025 (2024: 4,447 plots), with a similar level to be submitted over the next 12 months
- Begun the year exchanging on a further 465 plots for completion during 2026, as well as having 2,181 plots under offer
Property investment & development
- Property investment and development delivered an operating profit of £9.4m (2024: £14.9m)
- Gross development value (GDV) of HBD completed schemes amounted to £119m (our share: £33m GDV), of which 32% have been pre-let or pre-sold
- Completed schemes included 449,000 sq ft within Origin JV with Feldberg Capital, which completed on time and budget. With a total of 134,000 sq ft let or under offer, all the Origin schemes are attracting a good level of occupier interest
- A committed development programme of £66m GDV (our share: £18m). Strong near term pipeline to build up committed programme, including phase one of Golden Valley, Cheltenham (£98m GDV)
- £1.7bn development pipeline (our share: £1.4bn GDV), 55% of which is Industrial and Logistics
- Continued outperformance of Investment portfolio (IP) with a total property return6 of 11.1%, well ahead of the CBRE UK Monthly Index (7.1%). Market value, including our share of JVs, now £119.8m (2024: £107.4m)
Home building
- In January 2025, the group increased its ownership in SBH to 62.5%, and continues to make progress in professionalising and integrating the business into the group
- Operating loss of £9.2m (2024: £1.9m profit), delivering 185 home completions (2024: 270), reflecting slower trading conditions and delays in securing detailed planning
- Average selling price for private units of £403,000 (2024: £402,000)
- Net private weekly reservation rate at 0.37 in the year (2024: 0.45)
- In line with its growth ambitions, SBH has secured 1,031 plots in the period, resulting in a total owned and controlled land bank of 2,572 plots (December 2024: 1,726)
- Net private weekly reservation rate from 29 December 2025 to 15 March 2026 was ahead of budget at 0.43 (2025: 0.34)
