Summary
- Turnover, including Cruden’s share of joint ventures, rose to £134m from £112m.
- Profit before tax and exceptional items increased to £6.1m from £2.8m.
- Private home sales rose to 148 from 121, while the average selling price fell as the sales mix changed.
- The Scottish housebuilder has a development pipeline of more than 3,500 private and affordable homes.
Full Article
Cruden has more than doubled its profit before tax and exceptional items as private home sales increased, with more than 3,500 homes in its development pipeline.
The Scottish housebuilder reported profit on that basis of £6.1m for the year ended 31 March 2026, up from £2.8m. Turnover, including its share of joint ventures, increased to £134m from £112m.
Private home sales rose by more than 20% to 148, compared with 121 the previous year. The average selling price fell to £311,000 from £347,000, which the company attributed to the mix of homes sold and a greater proportion of value-focused family homes.
The results follow a shift towards private development and partnership-based affordable housing, and away from price-led tendered construction.
Fraser Lynes, chief executive of Cruden, said: “We have been very deliberate about how we want to grow Cruden. We are increasing our private housebuilding activity while focusing our affordable housing business on land-led developments and genuine partnerships where our development expertise can add real value.”
Net assets increased to £48.7m from £42.6m, while net cash reserves rose to £21.3m from £18.4m. The group also retained £9m of undrawn revolving credit facilities at the year-end.
Its pipeline spans private and affordable housing, combining regeneration projects with larger family housing developments and expansion into new geographical markets.
At Granton Waterfront in north Edinburgh, Cruden is delivering more than 800 homes in the first phase. Other developments include The Village at Dalmarnock in Glasgow, Neukhaven Green in Pittenweem and Stonefield Brae in Neilston.
The company is increasingly targeting larger development sites that provide several years of housing supply in individual locations. It intends to increase private home sales while expanding affordable housing activity and pursuing opportunities including build-to-rent.
Lynes said: “Our pipeline shows what the next phase of Cruden’s growth looks like. It gives us a strong mix of carefully selected private developments and major partnership-led placemaking projects. Our focus now is on converting those opportunities into homes and sustainable growth.”
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BGF acquired a minority stake in Cruden in November 2025, marking the business’s first external investment.
Euan Haggerty, chief financial officer, said: “The priority now is to maintain that discipline as activity increases. We are focused on converting the strength of the pipeline into sustainable growth in turnover, margin and cash generation, while continuing to manage our balance sheet carefully.”
