The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Persimmon eyes more sites
Looking up: Builder sees signs of confidence returning in city housing market
Housebuilder Persimmon Homes is eyeing more sites in Aberdeen amid signs of confidence returning to the city’s housing market.
The company, which has two developments in the city, said yesterday it had a “couple of bids in” for others.
Persimmon Homes regional chairman for Scotland John Cassie confirmed the firm’s continuing commitment to Aberdeen as it announced its full year results for 2016.
“Confirmed the firm’s continuing commitment to Aberdeen”
Describing the UK market as “confident” despite concerns over Brexit, the company unveiled pre-tax profits up 23% to £774.8million and an increase in revenue of 8% to £3.1billion for the year to December 31.
Mr Cassie said 2016 had been an “excellent” year for Persimmon in Scotland and demand had continued to grow in the first two months of 2017, with visitor numbers to developments and forward sales figures up on last year.
The company has sold all the properties at its site in Bucksburn, Aberdeen, but a number of homes are still for sale at its 63-house Riverside Quarter development in the city.
Mr Cassie said the oil and gas downturn had resulted in confidence in the city housing market “tightening.”
“The best we can say about Aberdeen is the market is starting to stabilise, but it is still challenging compared to the rest of the market,” he added.
“We are hoping it has bottomed out and there are signs of it stabilising.”
On the company’s activities across Scotland, he said: “We are delighted with customer activity in the first eight weeks of 2017.
“Visitor numbers to our developments are up 7% on last year and current forward sales are 9% ahead of 2016.”
Persimmon is due to start work on developments in Arbroath and Kinross in the coming weeks and is also building houses in Cambuslang and East Calder.
The company said it will open further new developments in Helensburgh, Lennoxtown and Dundee as the year continues.
Persimmon said legal completions across the UK increased by 599 new homes to 15,171 in 2016, compared to the previous year.
As part of its continuing growth strategy, the firm is opening a factory for the manufacture of bricks.
The facility, based in Harworth, near Doncaster, is set to be commissioned this quarter and will have the capacity to manufacture up to 80million bricks a year.