Cairn Homes wants Government to lift building site restrictions in February

A CGI of the proposed apartment plan by Cairn Homes for the former RTE lands in Montrose. It includes 611 apartments in nine blocks, ranging from four to 10 storeys in height. Picture: Cairn Homes

Ireland's largest housebuilder Cairn Homes said it hopes the Government will help mitigate disruption to its home building targets this year by lifting the new restrictions on building sites in early February.

In an update, the builder said it had a strong order book, as well as a "clear sales and profitability momentum into 2021".

"We hope that the disruption which this causes to our business and housing completions for 2021 is minimised by the potential reopening of sites in early February 2021," said chief executive Michael Stanley, who co-founded the builder.  

The builder said it generated €260m in revenues last year on sales of 743 new homes, compared with revenues of over €435m on 1,080 sales in 2019.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said last week there will inevitably be a further hit to the number of houses built this year in Ireland because of the latest lockdown.     

The ESRI had previously forecast 19,600 homes would be built this year after an estimated 18,800 homes were built in 2020, and the completion of around 21,240 new homes in 2019.

Cairn shares rose almost 3% to peg back its losses from a year ago to 18%. It is valued at €798m.

BMO Asset Management increased its stake in the firm to over 9% from around 8.9%.