Hill Group reports 29% rise in profits as it enters build-to-rent market

High levels of activity were seen in Hill Partnerships, which delivers affordable housing on behalf of registered providers and local authorities.

Its five-year business plan from 2025-30 will continue to focus on partnership-led development and mixed-tenure housing including BTR, estate regeneration and New Towns.

The group invested £77.9m in new land acquisitions during the year, bringing its total land and work-in-progress holdings to £638.9m.

Its net assets increased to £431.8m and net cash to £118.3m, and the group fully repaid its revolving credit facility by year-end.

Hill Group’s sales rates improved during the final quarter of the year, with an average selling price of £613,000, entering its current financial year with 40% forward sales.

The group’s development pipeline now includes more than 32,000 homes, including 10,200 with planning consent and a further 1,500 controlled on a subject to planning basis.

The longer-term strategic pipeline includes 20,300 unites in strategic control, and the pipeline is forecasted to generate more than £12.5bn in future gross development value. Hill Group’s contracting pipeline also rose to £4.8bn, up from £3.7bn last year.

In 2023, the group surpassed revenues of £1bn for the first time, with profits before tax of £70m from revenues of £1.15bn for a 15-month period in the financial year ending in 2024.

Andy Hill, founder and group chief executive of the Hill Group, said: “As we invest and scale for growth, we cannot ignore the structural issues within the current housing market.

“We urge the government to take bold action by accelerating planning decisions, assisting with solutions to fund increased affordable housing going forward, and introducing targeted measures to support first-time buyers.”

Through its Foundation 200 programme, the group is donating 200 modular homes to local authorities and homeless charities as part of a £15m pledge, launched in 2019.