Persimmon in ‘excellent market position’ with profits set to surpass targets
Persimmon, the York-headquartered housebuilder, has reported “another strong trading performance” in an update ahead of its final results for the year ended 31 December.
The company anticipates pre-tax profits for 2018 to be “modestly ahead of current market consensus,” having benefitted from the new developments which were opened through the year.
Persimmon also revealed that total group revenues are £3.74bn, which is 4% higher than the prior year (2017: £3.6bn).
New housing revenues increased by 4% to £3.55bn (2017: £3.42bn). Legal completion volumes increased by 406 new homes, a 3% rise, to 16,449 (2017: 16,043), including private sales of 13,341 new homes (2017: 13,274).
Persimmon’s average selling price of £215,560 was also 1% higher than last year’s figure of £213,321.
The company currently has 31 house building businesses across the UK, having opened seven new businesses over the last four years. On 2 January, Persimmon opened a new business based at Harworth, near Doncaster, which will support its growth across Yorkshire.
Persimmon is building new homes on around 365 active developments, a similar number to the same point last year.
The company noted that it will be adding to its outlet network with the launch of a variety of new sites over the coming weeks, with plans to open 55 sites through the first quarter of the year.
In the trading update, the company said: “As we look forward to the 2019 spring season Persimmon is in an excellent market position.
“Whilst the future performance of the UK economy is currently subject to increased levels of uncertainty the Group is well positioned with its strong outlet network together with the availability of a range of attractive house types at affordable prices across the regions of the UK, supported by a high quality land bank and conservative
“We will give an update on our assessment of the housing market over the early weeks of 2019 when we announce our results for the year ended 31 December 2018 on Tuesday 26 February 2019.”
