Thursday 08 July 2021 7:35 am | Updated: Thursday 08 July 2021 7:36 am

Surging house prices fuels revenue growth at Persimmon

Housebuilder Persimmon posted a strong set of results for the first six months of the year, driven by surging house prices.

Revenuesclimbed to £1.84bn in the first half of 2021, up from £1.75bn over the same period in 2019 – before the pandemic struck. Income for 2020 was £1.19bn.

Surging house prices driven by the stamp duty holiday and changing housing preferences during the pandemic has provided a windfall for the housebuilder.

The company delivered 7,406 new homes, up from 4,900 in 2020, but down slightly from 7,584 over the same period in 2020.

The average selling price of the firm’s homes increased 4.9 per cent over the first half of last year to £236,200, up significantly from £225,066 last year and higher than the £216,942 in 2019.

The company’s pipeline is strong, indicating that demand in the housing market is likely to remain strong in the long term, up to £1.82bn in the first six months, higher than the £1.62bn over the same period in 2019, but down from £1.86bn last year.

Dean Finch, group chief executive, says: “Customer demand for our new homes has been strong right across the UK with healthy sales reservation rates through the period.”

“In supporting the Group’s high quality growth we are taking advantage of attractive land investment opportunities and successfully brought over 10,000 new plots into the business across 48 locations in the period. We remain focused on progressing our pipeline of new sales outlets through the planning system and into production, and on our ongoing build programmes, to provide improved stock availability and choice for our customers.”