UPMARKET housebuilder CALA Group has seen its profits more than double and signalled it is not concerned a new Scottish land tax might inhibit its growth prospects.

The company saw turnover rise 22 per cent from £240.8 million to £294.2m in the 12 months to June 30 this year, helped by its acquisition of Banner Homes in March.

Profits in the period rose to £27.3m, 117 per cent ahead of the £12.6m recorded in the prior year.

Yesterday chief executive Alan Brown said: "The last 12 months has been a transformational period for the business.

"Record profits, investment in land and the Banner acquisition. I don't think we could have had a better year."

The strong financial performance came in spite of a small drop in private house completions, from 694 to 677. Gross margins improved from 18.8 per cent to 22.7 per cent while the average selling price was up from £335,000 to £423,000.

CALA said the hike in prices was partly a result of underlying growth in most areas with more marked advancement seen in the east of Scotland, including Aberdeen, and the south east of England.

The provision of larger homes on more attractive sites as well as Banner's higher average price point also had an influence.

The new land and building transaction tax in Scotland, which will replace stamp duty, will see a 10 per cent rate on properties between £250,000 and £1 million although that means most homes with a value of up to £325,000 will actually see their bill cut.

Mr Brown is not worried by the changes and said: "Our average selling price is under £400,000 so the effect on Cala is relatively small."

The company went on to suggest the recent capping of the Help to Buy scheme in Scotland for use for homes of up to £250,000 is also unlikely to have any major impact on its operation here.

Mr Brown said: "It doesn't directly impact on CALA at all.

"At the end of the day £250,000 must still be above the average selling price of a new home in Scotland.

"The fact [the Scottish government] are putting more money into Help to Buy in Scotland has to be a positive."

Mr Brown said CALA was still committed to investing in its Aberdeen, west region and east region operations in Scotland.

In common with other housebuilders it had seen a slowdown in transactions ahead of last month's independence referendum.

According to Mr Brown sales have picked up greatly in recent weeks. He said: "Things were quiet during the summer. That was a mixture of holidays, uncertainty around Help to Buy and the referendum.

"The last four or five weeks before the vote there was a lot more uncertainty. That has all gone away now and we have seen a pick-up in sales above levels that we had historically.

"I think there is a bit of catch up going on there."

Mr Brown said the group has considered a stock market flotation "from time to time" but there was nothing imminent planned.

He said: "Our focus is on the Banner business integration and our organic growth plan."

Net bank debt at the end of the financial year was at £141.6m, up from £40.5m, as a result of the Banner deal and CALA investing in land.

Its landbank was up 27 per cent to 12,690 plots with a gross development value of £4.7 billion. Turnover in the current financial year is expected to reach around £500m with CALA targeting £800m in 2016.

Office based staff numbers are predicted to grow from 680 to more than 800 over the next two years.

Mr Brown stated the average number of staff on site has also increased from 900 to around 1,600 and said: "We are really well placed to grow and the market backdrop is positive.

"I am very excited about CALA's prospects for the year ahead which will deliver our first year of significant volume growth since the implementation of our new growth strategy. We are looking forward to another good year."