Persimmon growth

Forward sales of £1.1 billion (€1.48 billion) at 31 December, 2015, for UK housebuilder Persimmon is said to be 13% ahead of the same point 12 months earlier.

The figure at the end of 2014 was £973 million (€1.30 billion), and Persimmon said the 2015 figure provided a strong platform for the group to continue to execute its long-term strategy.

It said 2015 had been another year of strong growth for the group, with legal completions increasing by 8% to 14,572 new homes, compared to 13,509 in 2014.

Second half volumes of 7,717 legal completions were 13% stronger than the first half, at 6,855. It said that two new businesses opened during 2015, and that they made a solid start to trading, with Central delivering 160 new homes and Teesside 310 new homes during the year.

Revenues for 2015 of £2.9 billion (€3.89 billion) were 13% higher than the previous year, when they were £2.6 billion (€3.49 billion).

Persimmon said its long-term strategy included growing the business to take advantage of sustainable market opportunities. A further two new businesses based at Launceston in Cornwall and Perth in Scotland began trading on 4 January, 2016, and the company said this would “support this disciplined growth”.

The group said it had acquired approximately 20,500 plots of new land over 123 sites with good deferred terms during the year.

It said the consistent application of the requirements of the UK government’s National Planning Policy Framework was supporting improvements in land release for development, and that additional initiatives recently announced in the government’s Autumn Statement should help further.