The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Developer homes in on Cardea growth
PETERBOROUGH-BASED Persimmon Homes is bucking the property trend and the Cardea community is key to its success.
Since opening for sale two years ago, the developer has occupied 260 properties at the site in Stanground, Peterborough.
Persimmon’s rate of sales success is some three times the norm across the industry, which would average between 25 and 50 houses per year, according to Adrian Evans, managing director of Persimmon Homes East Midlands.
Why the success of Cardea, the company’s biggest site in Peterborough?
Adrian explained that it was not only an attractive location, but that it also catered for everyone’s housing needs.
He said: “Cardea offers every type of property from a one-
JOHN KRALEVICH bedroomed starter home to a five-bedroomed detached house priced at £350,000.
“We have seen a strong performance from both the Persimmon and Charles Church brands.”
And in 2012, which has seen 70 sales to date, production is up by 25 per cent. At any one time, there are between 90 and 110 construction operatives on site, and generating enough demand to warrant their own food stall.
The success reflects what Adrian refers to as the company’s “major invest- ment” into the local area where the Morrisons supermarket has “come on stream early”, and the scheduled opening of a primary school in September 2012.
It all underscores the Persimmon Group’s recent trading statement, for the 15-week period from the start of 2012 which showed company performance at the top end of expecta
tions.
Visitor levels to the group’s sites are up 10 per cent compared to the previous year with cancellation rates running at historically low levels of about 17 per cent.
Customer enquiry levels are strong on both the Persimmon Homes and Charles Church websites and there has been further interest following the Government’s launch of the Newbuy 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgage guarantee product in March.
The weekly private sales rate is up 20 per cent and the order book, which totals £1.24 billion, is nine per cent ahead of the same time last year. Significantly, it means “money in the bank”, said Adrian.