Cala Homes (Midlands) has notched up a record start to its new financial year by preselling more than two-thirds of its target number of new homes.
The Birmingham-based award-winning housebuilder has already contracted to sell more than 200 units in its new 2005/6 financial year, leaving it less than 100 sales to achieve in the next 12 months.
The forward sales have been generated at its apartment schemes in Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield and Stratford-upon-Avon and at its housing developments in Fradley and elsewhere across the Midlands.
"This is our best start ever to a new financial year with so many sales already in the bag, but we will not be resting on our laurels," said Cala Homes (Midlands) managing director Alan Brown.
"It just goes to prove that if you provide the right product, at the right price, in the right location, you can sell extremely well.
"The fact that we are selling so many units in advance and off-plan shows that we are getting it right as far as our customers are concerned, and of course we will continue to listen to what they want."
According to Mr Brown, the planning process continues to be a major factor in slowing development opportunities.
He said: "It is becoming more complex and expensive to achieve planning permission for new developments. Fortunately we understand the system and its demands, and we already have planning consents in place to build a further 400 new homes in prime locations across the Midlands.
" Landowners with no development experience are finding it especially difficult to gain planning permission. Gone are the days of gaining a quick, cheap planning consent to add value to a piece of land.
"In the past year, the number of developments sites which we have been offered with planning permission has gone down considerably, as the amount and cost of the work which owners have to do to gain planning permission on their land has gone up significantly, and we expect this trend to continue."
Cala Homes (Midlands) presently has developments under construction at Fradley near Lichfield, where it is building 86 new homes, in Solihull at Beauchamp Place and The Grove, and its latest premium development, Imperial Place in Lillington Road, Leamington Spa which comes to the market in the autumn.
Later this year it begins work on a 63-home development at West Warwicks Sports Club in Solihull, where Cala worked with Sport England and other public bodies to secure the future of the club. It also begins construction on a £3 million development in Warwick.
