It’s the standard topic at dinner parties. House prices, how they keep rising, and how they’re becoming more and more unaffordable.
As employment in this country reaches ever greater highs, and the population of this small island keeps growing, demand for housing keeps rising. Yet Britain’s housing stock is just not keeping pace.
Housebuilders are raking in the profits
The result is rising house prices. It’s no surprise that the housebuilders are raking in the profits. And I still consider them buys.
The fact is, we’re still at the early stages of the post-Credit Crunch boom and so I think house prices have a lot further to climb. This is a long-term trend that has just got under way.
Yet look at the share price charts of many of the housebuilders, companies like Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV), Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW) and Persimmon (LSE: PSN), and you’d think they’ve already rocketed, and that there isn’t any further to rise.
Well, let’s dig a little deeper. Take Barratt Developments first. This company has been growing earnings at an incredible pace. Just check the numbers and you’ll see what I mean. Here are the earnings per share figures, looking back and going forward:
2013: 7.50p
2014: 30.40p
2015: 44.60p
2016: 53.12p
2017: 59.80p
Based on these figures, the 2016 P/E ratio is predicted to be 10.44, with a dividend yield of 5.47%. Look further ahead to 2017, and the P/E ratio is expected to be 9.27, with a dividend yield 6.68%. Now, it’s sensible to take the forecasts with a pinch of salt. But if these predictions are met, this company still looks cheap. And it has the ideal combination of growth and yield.
Check the numbers for Taylor Wimpey and you get a similar picture. The 2016 numbers are a P/E ratio of 10.30 with a dividend yield of 6.23%, and the 2017 numbers are a P/E ratio of 9.51 with a dividend yield of 6.93%.
And for Persimmon the P/E ratio is 10.64, with an income of 5.52% in 2016. In 2017 it’s expected to be 9.53 and 5.52%.
And the boom is set to roll on
All three companies are growing their profits rapidly and have a high and rising dividend.
Are there any clouds on the horizon? Well, there has been talk of interest rates, and thus mortgage rates, increasing in the near future. But, in this production-rich, demand-poor world, that’s highly unlikely. Low interest rates are set to be a permanent feature of the investing landscape.
And with seemingly no end to the jobs machine that this country has become, I see no road blocks as Britain’s housing boom rolls on. All three of these firms are strong buys.