Persimmon shrugs off Brexit as half year profits rise

Vision...Jeff Fairburn the CEO for Persimmon, York....SH1001440e...9th June 2014 Picture by Simon Hulme

Britain's second largest housebuilder Persimmon said its reservation rate had risen an annual 17 per cent since the start of July, shrugging off the impact of the Brexit vote, which some fellow builders have warned could slow the property market.

The York-based firm, which posted a 29 percent increase in first-half pretax profit to £352.3m, said there was an increase in the number of people paying a fee to take a property off the market.

“While the result of the EU Referendum has created increased economic uncertainty, customer interest since then has been robust with visitor numbers to our sites around 20 per cent ahead year on year,” chief executive Jeff Fairburn said.

“Our private sale reservation rate since 1 July is currently 17 per cent ahead of the same period last year.”

The company’s half year revenue rose by 12 per cent to £1.49bn and the average selling price rose by six per cent to £205,762.