<p><span>The retirement housing market is likely to remain challenging in the face of Covid-19 and lockdown measures, McCarthy &amp; Stone said today, as it issued a trading update on its year end which revealed a significant drop in total completions on the previous year.</span></p> <p><span>During the year ending October 31 2020, the retirement housebuilder’s total completions stood at 832 units against the 2,402 achieved during the equivalent period last year. This includes 166 rental units (2019: 101).</span></p><p></p> <p><span>The business generated full year revenue of around £197 million compared to 2019’s £725 million. Its underlying operating loss for the year is “in line with board expectations”.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Despite seeing positive effects in the secondary market from pent up demand and the stamp duty holiday during late summer and early autumn, McStone said its market remained “affected by Covid-19”, with sales subdued as a result of its older customer base’s more cautious approach.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Accordingly, its average total net reservations for the quarter ending October 31 were 40% down on the same period last year at 22 per week. It said that recently announced lockdown measures had impacted net reservations in recent weeks, initially more so in the Midlands and North where earlier restrictions …