Housebuilder papers over recent troubles with strong financials
Housebuilder Persimmon has shrugged off the controversy about its management bonuses to deliver a strong set of first half results.
For the six months to the end of June, the York-headquartered firm posted a 13% rise in pre-tax profit to £516.3m and group revenue of £1.84bn, up 5% from £1.75bn in the prior year period. Forward sales are 6% ahead of last year at £2.12bn, placing the group in a strong position for the second half of the year.
New home sales increased 4% to 8,072 while the average selling price of new homes was up 1% to £215,813.
Persimmon secured 11,072 plots of new land in the period, including 3,212 plots converted from the group’s strategic land bank.
Chief executive Jeff Fairburn said: “These strong results reflect the continued successful delivery of the group’s long term strategy and our commitment to meeting customer demand in each of our 30 regional markets across the UK.
“We have continued to experience good levels of customer interest in our housing development sites as we trade through the quieter summer season. Customers are continuing to benefit from a competitive mortgage market and confidence remains resilient based on healthy employment trends and low interest rates.”
Fairburn said that greater use of the group’s offsite manufacturing capability will support its aim to deliver further increases in new home volumes.
He added: “The group has a robust platform to continue to deliver successful outcomes based on its high quality land bank, strong forward sales, excellent financial position, and experienced management team. We believe we are well positioned to deliver further high quality, sustainable growth.”
