Persimmon hails solid first half amid resilient housing sector
Housebuilder Persimmon said the property market took the snap general election “in its stride” as the firm racked up another set of rising sales.
In a half-year trading update yesterday covering the year to 30 June, the Charles Church group disclosed that revenue grew 12 per cent to £1.66 bil- lion, with the average selling price of its homes growing 3.5 per cent to around £213,000.
“We have continued to experience good levels of customer demand since the group’s AGM trading update on 27 April 2017, with the market taking the snap UK general election in its stride.
“Consumer confidence remains resilient and compelling mortgage rates con- tinue to offer good support to new home-buyers,” Persimmon said.
Completion volumes rose 8 per cent to 7,794 homes in the period, with total forward sales valued at £1.6bn, an increase of 18 per cent compared with last year.
Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It looks highly unlikely that interest rates are going to rise rapidly, and we think households should be able to stomach a return to the 0.5 per cent base rate we saw before the referendum pretty comfortably.
“In any case, Persimmon’s geographic diversity and relatively low exposure to London and the south east means it’s less exposed to the areas where affordability has become most stretched.”