York house builder produces 'robust' performance as revenues drop to £3.33bn

Persimmon's new home completions were down from 15,855 in 2019 to 13,575. Total group revenues dropped from £3.65bn to £3.33bn. While new housing revenues fell from £3.42bn to £3.13bn.

The average selling price, however, was up from £215,709 to around £230,500. Its current forward sales position was also up from £1.356bn to £1.689bn.

Dividend paid in the year went from 235p per share to 110p per share.

Dean Finch, chief executive of Persimmon, said: "The group's strong second half completions were supported by its advanced build coming into the year, an agile and effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic and resilient customer demand.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues and our suppliers and subcontractors for their continued hard work and commitment throughout this challenging period.

"The health, safety and wellbeing of our customers, our workforce and our communities has been paramount throughout and all of the Group's businesses continue to operate in line with our Covid-secure policies and procedures.

"We continue to improve our customer service and build quality and I am pleased at the level of commitment I have seen from within the business to achieving these aims, as recognised in our current customer satisfaction scores which have been trending ahead of the 5 star HBF rating since January 2020.

"Looking ahead, we are focused on delivering further improvement and consistency in the way we serve our customers and build our homes, whilst reducing our impact on the environment.

"Recent events have served to further demonstrate the continuing near term uncertainties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"However, we believe that the longer term fundamentals of the UK housing market remain resilient and I am confident Persimmon will continue to deliver superior long term value for all of its stakeholders."

Demand for new homes remained resilient throug the second half of the year with the group's average weekly sales rate per site being 39 per cent higher than the second half of last year in part supported by the temporary adjustment to the Government's stamp duty regime.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson