Crest reports build defects

Crest Nicholson has discovered build defects on four sites, with its completions also likely to be 11% down in FY 2024.

Issuing an update on the period from November 1 2023 to March 15 2024, the housebuilder said that since the publication of its 2023 results in January, it had “become aware” of defects, “predominately” on four schemes completed before 2019 when Crest closed its Regeneration and London divisions.

These sites, the group said, would need remediation over the next three years at an estimated cost of “up to £15 million”. The board is now appointing a third party consultant “to provide greater assurance on the adequacy of current provisions around these and other sites completed prior to 2019”. Crest will give an update in June when it reports its interim results.

It has also previously reported on challenging trading conditions and costs associated with its long running Farnham scheme and other legacy sites. Today (March 19) it said construction of these was now “progressing largely as planned”.

During the reporting period, Crest said that its reservations were “in line with expectations”. Its open market sales per outlet per week (SPOW) for its year-to-date was 0.44, …