Results for the six months to June 30 show pre-tax profit up to £8.1m from £3.5m while operating margins jumped  to 7.5% from 4.2%.

Turnover also ticked-up to £133.6m from £115.6m as the firm completed 801 homes.

Chief executive David Ritchie said: “This increase has been delivered through improved profit margins generated from reduced construction costs.”

The price of homes sold remained fairly steady at £163,400 from £158,400.

The firm said: “Gross margin delivered in the first half of 2011 was 20.1%, which compared to 16.3% in 2010.

“With relatively stable market pricing year on year, the gross margin improvement was generated from significant year on year reductions in construction costs on existing sites, due to lower subcontract labour rates.”

Bovis has started on 27 new sites this year and hopes to have an average of 85 live sites throughout 2012.