Housebuilder Bovis Homes has shrugged off heightened uncertainty surrounding the Brexit vote to book a double-digit percentage rise in profits.
The FTSE 250 firm said the "underlying market fundamentals" for the UK housing market remained positive, as half year pre-tax profits stepped up 15% to 61.7 million to June 30, up from £53.8 million in 2015.
Revenues also climbed 18% to £412.8 million over the period, building on £350.7 million in the first half of 2015.
It added that the number of new homes it completed rose 5% to 1,601 compared to last year, while the average selling price lifted 14% to £254,500 in contrast to £222,300 the year before.
Chief executive David Ritchie said the rise in profits came after the firm built a record number of homes in the first half of 2016.
"Whilst it is too early to judge the impact of the EU Referendum and the Bank's monetary policy response on the UK housing market, the underlying market fundamentals for UK housing remain positive," he added.
"We have been pleased with the resilient level of interest shown by potential home buyers contacting us.
"Our robust balance sheet, with debt lower than last year, means that we are well positioned to continue to take advantage of prime land opportunities at potentially higher returns.
"Overall, we remain confident in our strategy to deliver long-term growth in shareholder returns."
Shares were down more than 1%.
The company said it had already hit more than 90% of planned home sales for this year, with 3,877 sales as of August 12 compared with 3,768 in 2015.
Mr Ritchie added: "Strong housing demand has led to overall market pricing improvements, with the group having experienced pricing ahead of expectations with Help to Buy continuing to be a significant driver of sales.
"Offsetting these pricing improvements is the impact of rising construction costs, although the impact of inflation on our cost base has moderated compared to last year."
The bright performance from the firm comes amid a string of gloomy reports for the construction sector, suggesting the UK economy is in line for an economic slowdown.
The construction industry fell back into recession for the first time in four years in the run-up to Britain's referendum on the European Union.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said construction output dropped by 0.7% in the second quarter, following a 0.3% fall in the first quarter, meaning the industry recorded two consecutive quarters of negative growth for the first time since 2012.
Meanwhile, the latest Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed that the construction industry recorded its fastest fall since June 2009, hitting 45.9 in July, down slightly from 46 in June but above economists' expectations of 44.
Property stocks took a hammering in the wake of the EU referendum result, with Bovis Homes still 18% lower than before the Brexit vote.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here