Watkin Jones has slumped to an £8.7m pre-tax loss after another year of impairments and slow deal flow.

But the developer insisted the worst of the downturn was now behind it as forward-sold revenue and a £2bn pipeline stack up for 2026 and beyond.

Revenue fell 23% to £280m in the year to September and margins tightened as three to four-year-old legacy schemes worked through the system, while a £7.1m impairment on two assets and a £5m top-up to building-safety provisions dragged statutory results deep into the red.

Despite the headline loss, chief executive Alex Pease said the firm’s reset strategy is beginning to bite.

He said that a more agile approach to structuring deals, stronger construction delivery and a growing contribution from diversified income helped shore up performance in a market still starved of liquidity.

Four projects hit practical completion on or ahead of schedule, and management says all in-build schemes are tracking “materially to plan”.

Watkin Jones also pushed through three development partnerships plus a flagship 784-bed PBSA JV in Glasgow, signalling a shift towards more flexible funding routes.

Pease said the group enters 2026 with far greater visibility thanks to £340m of forward-sold revenue and improving investor sentiment in PBSA and BTR, where chronic undersupply continues to support long-term demand.

Recent wins include a conditional forward sale of a 484-bed scheme in Bristol and a new 294-unit aparthotel in Wimbledon expected to generate around £40m of future revenue.

Pease said: “FY25 has seen the benefits of our evolved strategy help mitigate some of the effects of the challenging backdrop over the last three years. This resilient performance reflects strong operational delivery, more agile structuring and the increasing contribution from our diversified activities.”