After a great deal of turbulence in recent years, we saw a continued stabilization in 2024. Today, we are pleased to deliver on the outlook we provided a year ago and narrowing during the year. Revenue came to DKK 2.3 billion and was impacted by lower unit sales in 2023, but sales have been picking up since and increased significantly in 2024. We maintained solid results with EBITDA of DKK 104 million and a margin of 4.5%. We may not be out of the woods yet, but we have seen moving in the right direction the last year. Consumer confidence and interest in house building improved gradually, and we are seizing the opportunities in the market to grow sales and bolster our backlog. We also maintain our sharp focus on customer satisfaction with another industry-leading Trustpilot score of 4.8 in 2024.
The good performance in daily operations was combined with several new partnerships, orders, and initiatives. We have expanded our activities in the B2B market a lot in 2024, and utilization of our factories in Esbjerg and Sweden has improved. At the same time, we have launched several new concepts in our detached and semi-detached segments. We will get back to that shortly. While the turmoil in the global politics these days is not very helpful, we still expect to continue the good momentum in 2025 in a market expected to gradually rebound. With this word, let's flip to slide three for just a few more comments on the market sentiment. This slide clearly shows how consumer confidence has been severely impacted in the recent years, but it is also quite clear that we are now climbing from a very low point.
At the same time, the macro indicators look rather good. Employment is strong, and the core inflation is below 2%. People are still cautious and concerned about the economy, but interest rates are not fluctuating as much as a few years back, and activity is high in the housing market. During the year, this trend has translated into sales growth at our offices, and we will build on this momentum going forward. Please turn to slide four and comments from Allan about the Q4 highlights.
Thank you, Martin. The positive trend in deliveries and revenue continued in the last quarter of the year as we began to see an effect of the pickup in sales that Martin referred to before. Both the detached and the semi-detached segment in Denmark contributed to a 22% increase in revenue to DKK 647 million in the quarter. This is, in fact, the highest revenue realized in a single quarter since Q1 2023, underlining the continued traction in our business. Gross profit increased moderately to DKK 133 million, and the margin was lower at 20.6% as the average sales price in the semi-detached segment was below the levels in late 2023 due to changes in the product mix. Still, we were pleased to see a really good efficiency level on the projects and continued cost control across the business, with SG&A coming in slightly lower than expected.
We lifted earnings by a third and delivered EBITDA of DKK 23 million as we benefited from the increase in revenue. This also resulted in a slightly higher margin of 3.6%. The lower average sales price in the semi-detached business weighed down the earnings level and our margin in the quarter. EBIT doubled to DKK 12 million in Q4. The free cash flow was negative by DKK 21 million for the quarter and was mainly impacted by changes in working capital following the steadily increasing activity level, leading to more work in progress for customers. Let us move on with comments on the full year highlights on slide five. After the solid end of the year, we delivered on our expectations and landed revenue of DKK 2.3 billion for 2024.
This was around 4% lower than 2023 after low activity in Sweden and impacted by the fact that we obtained building permits in some B2B projects later than initially expected. Still, we were pleased to note gradual improvements and growth quarter by quarter throughout the year. In the first couple of quarters, revenue was severely impacted by the low sales in 2023, but the pickup in sales translated into higher revenue in the second half of 2024. We managed to maintain a solid gross profit of DKK 508 million and lift the margin to 22.1% despite the decline in revenue. Efficient execution across projects was key to ensuring this progress. In addition, material costs were lower in the first part of the year than initially expected, and this had a positive effect on the B2B business.
These positive factors more than compensated for an adverse impact from an expected lower average sales price in the semi-detached business. EBITDA was relatively stable at DKK 104 million for an unchanged margin of 4.5% despite the lower revenue. This was a result of the flexibility and adaptability of our business model, combined with efficient execution and strict financial discipline as mentioned by Martin. EBIT was slightly lower at DKK 56 million against DKK 62 million in 2023. Please note that the result for 2024 is impacted by a higher financial cost of DKK 10 million and a DKK 2 million tax increase. These items are recognized in the 2024 income statement following an audit and initial ruling by the Danish tax authorities. The initial ruling stipulates a reversal of the deduction of marketing contributions provided to foreign subsidiaries for the period 2019 to 2020.
It is important to note that this initial ruling will have no future impact as no marketing contributions have been made to group subsidiaries since 2020. As we reviewed the historical marketing contributions during the audit process, it came to our attention that a correction of a marketing contribution for the period 2015 to 2018 by mistake was submitted and afterwards corrected in a later taxable income year. While the tax authorities have initially refused to reopen the taxable income statement for the affected years, we are currently engaged in a positive dialogue. Based on an assessment from our external legal advisor, we expect a positive outcome, and we have therefore not made a provision. If the tax authorities maintain their position and do not allow reopening of the taxable income statement for 2020, this could entail an additional expense of DKK 25 million comprised of interest cost and tax.
You can read note 6.1 in the annual report for additional information, but the key takeaways are clear. The dialogue with the authorities concerning historical tax matters is ongoing, and we note that the outcome will not impact our guidance, our future operating profit, or our ability to stay within our covenant range. Returning to the 2024 cash flow, we saw net cash generated from operating activities decline due to changes in working capital. We were busy selling and building new houses in 2024, and a significant share of deliveries are trailing into 2025. This impacted the free cash flow, which declined to DKK 105 million in 2024. On a positive note, the gearing level declined to 2.6% as planned after a reduction in interest-bearing debt from DKK 356 million to DKK 271 million. This is comfortably within delivery covenants under our financing agreement.
Let's look at sales, deliveries, and our order book, and please turn to slide six. Sales activity was higher in all quarters compared to 2023, and we were pleased to note a 66% increase in sales for 2024 after a good end of the year. This translates into 1,414 units sold in total. Progress was good in the detached segment with 30% growth, but the semi-detached business was particularly strong with 227% growth after solid contributions in Q4, with permits being obtained in two larger projects, NREP and Velkomn. The Swedish business saw a modest 2% growth in unit sales for the year. Please note that the contract with Thylander announced in October is not included in semi-detached sales as the building permit is still pending.
The project is another good example that we are making progress in the B2B market in Denmark, and we continue to see good traction with larger investors and expect to sign more interesting projects this year. We continued to strengthen sales efforts during the year as we aim to win market shares in B2C and B2B. We introduced the Formium high-end concept in B2C business in Q3 and followed up with the launch of our innovative and wood-based B2B concept called Morrow in Q4. The positive sales trend from late 2024 has continued in the first two months of 2025. We have sold 123 units in detached, 115 in semi-detached, and 20 in Sweden. On that note, let us go to slide seven and an update on deliveries. The traction in sales during 2024 had a positive impact on deliveries toward the end of the year.
In Q4, we noted a 42% increase in deliveries after lower figures in the first three quarters following lower sales in 2023. For the full year, we still saw a 15% decline in deliveries across segments, but we are now moving in the right direction again. Deliveries in the detached and semi-detached segments were down by around 5%, but deliveries in the Swedish business fell by more than 60%. In total, we delivered 899 houses in 2024 after the slow sales in 2023. In the first two months of this year, we delivered 78 units in detached, 2 in semi-detached, and 8 in Sweden. Now, please go to slide eight and our order backlog. Looking at our gross order backlog, we saw another uptick in the last quarter of the year and reached DKK 2.4 billion.
This is an increase of 57% from the end of 2023, and progress is driven by all our segments. After obtaining the permits mentioned before, the semi-detached order book more than doubled for the full year. At the turn of the year, the net order backlog had grown by 66% to DKK 1.9 billion. This amounts to 64% of the midpoint of our revenue guidance for 2025. In addition, we are pleased to note that the good traction in B2B contributes to build a foundation of orders reaching into 2026 as well. We still need to obtain building permits, but we are pleased to continue in the right direction. Let us turn to slide nine for comments by Martin on the strategic efforts in 2024. As just mentioned by Allan, we built a stronger order book in 2024, but we remain committed to continuing increasing the backlog in 2025.
This is a clear priority for us as we are building a foundation for delivering profitable growth in the years ahead. We are therefore focused on translating strategic efforts into sales in each of our segments. Our detached business is leading in Denmark and has a market share around 18%-19%. We want to win additional market share by standing out from the competition and adapting our business to meet demand and provide leading customer experience. This is done every day by our skilled employees at eight offices and seven show parks across Denmark. They are supported by great digital tools to ensure that we can deliver best-in-class customer support and personalized guidance through the billing process.
In the B2B market, we expanded our footprint in 2024, which was a breakthrough year for us in this space. We want to continue this path and leverage our production capacity at the two factories to re-upscale benefits. We have invested a lot of time and effort in building strong relations and partnerships with professional developers and investors, and we are pleased to see that it is beginning to pay off. I will provide a couple of examples of our new B2C and B2B concepts in a minute. Sweden remained a difficult market, and we have maintained our strategy of adapting to the tough conditions. We are making sure that we will be ready for a rebound, and in the meantime, we are making good use of our production facilities to support the growth in the Danish B2B market.
We have been focused on integrating and aligning our factory with the Danish factory to scale our production and ensure greater flexibility. We will continue these efforts. Now, let us look at a few strategic initiatives launched in 2024. Go to slide 10, please. We want to lead the market evolution in house building and live up to our purpose of co-creating the houses of tomorrow today. We do this in close collab with our customers, and we are calibrating and offering a launch in new concepts to stay top of mind and stand out as the market leader. We have highlighted three concepts launched in 2024 on this slide. Firstly, we decided to leverage our years of experience building high-end houses by introducing the new Formium concept to expand our reach in the B2C upmarket segment.
We have sharpened our offering with a focus brand and a dedicated organization, which brings our customers' luxury homes to life and offers support and service during the after the billing process. We offer expert guidance and advice from construction consultants, architects, lighting designers, color experts, interior designers, and landscape architects. The new concept has been well received by customers across the country, and we will open an office also in Aarhus in 2025 to expand in this space as well. Secondly, our new Morrow concept was launched to enhance our offering in the semi-detached segments. Morrow has a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to average Danish residential constructions. It will serve as our innovative B2B platform for lower carbon initiatives going forward. The concept is based on wood elements and produced at our factory in Esbjerg to ensure scalability and stable deliveries for our project partners.
This climate impact is also significantly below the new limits to be introduced by mid-2025, and Morrow offers future-proof projects to our customers. The third concept highlighted here is HC Elements, which provides a competitive edge in semi-detached house building. After acquiring the factory in Esbjerg in 2022, we have now launched this new concept to provide prefab wooden elements to third-party developers and builders, and this enables fast constructions and high precision. It also contributes to ensure more sustainable and cost-effective solutions. In short, we have taken several steps to deliver our business in 2024 and strengthen the offers across the B2C and the B2B segments as well. We are getting positive feedback and look forward to pursuing opportunities within all these areas. Let us turn to the outlook for 2025 on slide 11. Thank you, Martin.
We are confident that we are on the right track and well positioned to seize opportunities in an expected market rebound in detached. At the same time, we are strengthening our position in the semi-detached segment and signing more contracts with professional developers. There is still a lot of political and macroeconomic uncertainty around, but we remain cautiously optimistic. All in all, 2025 offers good prospects across our segments, and we expect the positive trends to entail revenue and earnings growth. Our order book is significantly stronger today than a year ago, with a good contribution from the sales recorded in the first two months of the year. On this backdrop, we expect revenue to be within the range of DKK 2.8 billion-DKK 3.1 billion for the year. We have assumed that we will deliver between 1,000 and 1,200 houses in 2025.
The midpoint of this revenue guidance would entail a growth of 28%. In terms of earnings, we expect EBITDA to improve to a range of DKK 110 million-DKK 160 million, with EBIT reaching the range of DKK 70 million-DKK 120 million. We will maintain our focus on efficient project execution and strict financial discipline, but we will also make the necessary investments in SG&A and our new concepts to support the continued expansion of our order book. We are still monitoring our leverage and expect to stay well within the covenants of our financing agreement in 2025. There will be no dividend distribution in 2025, and dividends are not expected to be reintroduced before our leverage is below two times net debt to EBITDA. With this, we want to thank you for listening in. Please turn to the next slide for the Q&A session.
We will now start the Q&A session.
If you do wish to ask a question, you will need to press five stars on your telephone to withdraw your questions. Please press five stars again. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. Our first question comes from the line of Kristian Tornøe from SEB. Please go ahead, your line, will be unmuted.
Yes, thank you. I got a couple of questions. I'll just do them one by one. The first one goes to the SG&A cost in your detached business. DKK 280 million in 2024, only up less than 3%. What have you assumed on the SG&A cost ramp in 2025?
In general, we expect a significant SG&A cost ramp in 2025 to support our growth. I think we have been looking at sales for 2024, the sales recorded.
We have increased sales significantly in the B2B business that requires additional production from our factories in both Esbjerg and in Sweden, and it requires additional hourly paid workers, which is recorded as SG&A in our financial statements. Is it something you can quantify how much a significant grant of it? No, I wouldn't quantify that. Just to this change to discontinued operations. If I understand this correctly, you have had some costs related to the German business, which was closed down some years, which you no longer are allowed to report as discontinued operations. In the 2024 numbers, can you just tell us how much of an EBITDA impact has this cost had, and what do you expect for 2025? Yes. As you said, Kristian is correct that we don't no longer separate discontinued and continued, and the effect in 2024 is the DKK 3 million.
The effect in 2023 was roughly DKK 400,000. So it's not something that we expect anything from in this detail. If there can be some smaller adjustments, I cannot conclude that that won't take place, but it's not something we expect any significant impact from.
Okay. Fair enough. If I may jump to the semi-detached business. Looking at Q4, deliveries are quite high, so it seems that you have finished a larger project. On the other hand, gross margin is somewhat low at 16%. Is there an element of a project being completed that's sort of below expectation execution?
No, there is not. In general, if we have larger projects, we deliver in baskets, and when we deliver a basket, we are recognizing that as a delivery number one.
Number two, we did expect a change in margins throughout the year as we saw a change in the mix of our B2B deliveries and B2B projects. I think you commented upon that earlier.
Okay, that makes sense. Maybe just to help us, because obviously looking at your gross margin, it has varied from 39% or 38% in Q1 to 16% in Q4. Is 16% the run rate we should expect going forward?
No, it is not. It is merely a timing of margins on projects, so it is not.
It should be higher than 16%, just to clarify.
Yes, I can confirm that.
Great. Excellent. I will stop here and jump back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question will be from the line of Sebastian Grau from Nordea. your line will be unmuted.
Good morning, Martin and Allan, and thank you for taking my questions also. First, I want to double-click on the assumptions for your guidance. You talk about a continued market rebound. Are you able to expand a bit on this? Do you assume improving end markets plus market share gains, and does that go for both detached and the semi-detached market? That would be my first question.
Okay. I would say if we look at the semi-detached market, we would say we have gained significant market share, and we will continue to focus on our sales for the upcoming year. We have strong dialogues with our good dialogues with a lot of partners, both partners that we already have dialogues with and potential new partners. In the detached business, we still see—I would not say we still see—but we expect growth for the upcoming year.
As Martin commented on, there's still a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty, but in terms of discussions on interest rates, we don't really—I would not say we don't really see—but we don't see the same hesitance among consumers when we look at interest rates. I would say we still have a lot of interest and an increase in our lead activity overall. Okay. Okay. What I hear here—maybe correct me if I'm wrong—but end markets, semi or detached market end markets are still moving in the right direction as you see it. I mean, considering your strategic investments in Formium and other initiatives, you also anticipate still continued market share gains in 2025.
Is that fair to put it like that?
Yeah, I can confirm, Allan, because yes, we are seeing that there's an increase in leads in the detached segment. Yes, there is.
Okay, that's fair.
Maybe remaining on the detached business here for a while. You sold 123 detached units in January and February. If you look at sort of the implied monthly run rate, it is quite a bit below what we saw in Q4. Has there been a change as you see to the sort of consumer environment or anything that could explain this, or is it simply a question of seasonality? Any comments here would be very helpful.
I would say looking back at—I think looking back at the past two, three years, it's difficult to talk about seasonality because the macroeconomic impacts made it fluctuating a bit more. I would say what we have informed you about in terms of sales is what we had expected. I think that's the way I can put it.
Okay. No, that's fair.
Just the last question, and I will go back to the queue. Now, it's around capital allocation. You previously shared thoughts around sort of increasing the capacity in your production. Is it something that you still consider, or what are other sort of top priorities in terms of capital allocation for 2025?
That is correct what you are saying or referring to, Sebastian. We are constantly looking into how we can optimize and improve on the factories both in Esbjerg and in Sweden. We see really good progress in Sweden, which is supporting deliveries in the B2B segment. Currently, we do not anticipate large investments, but we are constantly looking at our needs and balancing capacity and needs and investments and looking at that. Anything else?
I mean, capital allocation-wise, I mean, are you looking into land purchases, building up showhouses, or is there anything that there's top of the agenda here for 2025? I think what we need to look at when we look ahead is that first, maybe starting with 2024, we were having our foot on both the brake and the gas pedal, right? We will be navigating that in 2025 as well. We are looking into whether investments in land, digital efforts, etc., opening an office for Formium is relevant for us. These are the thoughts that we are, of course, doing, and then we are going to balance all of that.
Yeah. Sounds good. Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.
Sure.
Thank you.
As a reminder, press five star to ask a question. The next question will be from the line of Allan Spretzmann from Danske Bank. Please go ahead, your line, will be unmuted.
Thank you for that. Hello, Martin and Allan, and thank you as well for taking my questions. I also have a few. If we begin with the order backlog, the net order backlog of DKK 1.9 billion, I suspect that part of that relates to some semi-detached orders being executed beyond 2025. Are you perhaps able to tell us how much of the net order backlog that you expect to utilize in 2025?
No, we cannot disclose that.
Okay. That is fair. We move on to the semi-detached business and an average sales price of DKK 1.2 million. Is the expected run rate going forward, or do you expect them to go down more or perhaps a little bit up?
This is more or less the average we would expect going forward.
Okay. That sounds good. And then just a final question.
You reopened your location or one of your locations in central Jutland this year, part of the Danish market where activity levels historically, at least, have been pretty high in terms of new growth. Can you tell us about how that has gone? Have you seen increased customer interest in that part of the country?
Allan, I'm not sure what you are talking to because we are opening up an office in Horsens. Is that that you are thinking about? We will open that office here in about two, three months, actually. We haven't started off.
Okay. Understood. All right. That was all for me. Thank you for the—
Okay.
Thank you. As no one else has lined up for questions in this call, I'll now hand it back to the speakers for any closing remarks. Thank you.
We will, of course, like to thank you all for your interest in HusCompagniet, and please reach out if you have any follow-up questions, and have a nice day. Thank you for now.