Persimmon shares ticked higher as it reported an improvement in sales rates in its first quarter with pricing also described as “firm”.
Dean Finch, chief executive, said it had been a good start with home sale completions on track to grow to between 10,000-10,500 for the full year, versus 9,922 last year and 14,868 two years ago.
“Trading over recent weeks has been encouraging with robust visitor numbers and enquiries, giving us confidence for the remainder of the year.
“Overall, our private forward order book is up 18% on the prior year with the embedded private average selling price ahead of the position at the start of the year.”
Completions in the quarter though were still down 10% from a year ago at 1,027 though sales per outlet improved to 0.66 from 0.62 or by 6% excluding bulk sales.
Private average selling prices have also risen to £283,000 or by 6% since the start of the year
Forward sales now stand at £1.75 billion, of which private orders account for £1.14 billion, while land plots on its books dropped to 82,500 from 86,400.
Persimmon added its first-half performance will be affected by embedded build cost inflation and lower average selling prices but the trend is expected to reverse in the second half, given the increase in the average selling price.