<p> <br/></p><p><span><span>Linden Homes had made “excellent progress” against its objectives for the year, its parent company Galliford Try said today (September 12), reporting on the company’s full year results.</span></span></p><p><span><span>During the year ending June 30 2018, Linden, GT’s housebuilding arm, generated an improved operating margin of 19.5% against 2017’s 18.2%, with operating profit climbing 8% to £184.4 million. Revenue lifted from £</span></span><span><span>937.4 million in 2017 to £947.3 million.</span></span></p><p><span>The housebuilder achieved <span>3,442 completions against last year’s 3,296, with private housing accounting for 2,587 of the units (2017: 2,537</span>). </span></p><p><span>Private average selling prices increased 4% to </span><span>£367,000<span>. Linden said that the slightly higher price was largely due to sales in London “<span>which made up a relatively small proportion of our units but had much higher than average selling prices”. It added that it </span><span>continued to expect </span><span>average selling prices to reduce over its strategy period to 2021, reflecting its standardisation </span><span>drive</span><span> and growth in regions outside of the south east.</span></span></span></p><p><span>Linden’s sales rate of 0.59 per outlet per week was slightly down on 2017’s 0.62. Sales reserved, contracted or completed totalled </span><span>£510 million <span>(2017: </span></span>£545 m<span>illion<span>)</span>. </span></p><p><span>Linden made “a good start to the new financial year” with a solid forward order book, lower than …