Housebuilder and developer Countryside Properties has promised investors that its performance will improve in the second half of the financial year after its interim pre-tax profit rose only 2.4%.
Turnover increased 16% to £186m for the six months to 31 March but this was not reflected in pre-tax profit, which rose from £12.2m to £12.5m.

Group chairman Alan Cherry said that profit from Countryside's contracting and commercial operations had been depressed in the first half of the year. He blamed this on a fall in housing margins from 12.7% in 2001 to 10.9%, which was itself the result of the sale of some poorly performing properties that had been bought during the recession of the early 1990s.

If these were not taken into account, said Cherry, the margins improved on the same period last year. He added that he expected that this improvement would continue into the second half of the year.

The group's average selling price increased 25%, from £229,000 last year to £287,000, and turnover at its housebuilding operations rose from £102.7m to £137.9m.

Cherry added that the group had noticed a slowdown following the attacks of 11 September. This had affected sales of the group's more expensive houses in its South-eastern divisions.