In a recent trading statement issued, the firm said enquiry levels are running about 13% ahead of the prior year with a strong forward sales position - total forward sales revenue, including legal completions taken to date in 2018, stand at £2.76 billion, around 8% higher than last year (2017: £2.56 billion).
Persimmon’s weekly private sales rate per site since the start of the year is about 0.85 (2017: c. 0.83) and 9,048 (2017: 8,928) new homes have been sold forward into the private market with an average selling price of circa £236,500 (2017: c. £229,500).
The company says it has opened 65 of the 100 or so new sites planned for the first half of the year and is building new homes on all sites that have an implementable detailed planning consent. The group is currently developing 375 active sales outlets across the UK.
Persimmon highlighted the development of its off-site manufacturing capability in playing an increasingly important role in supporting the expansion of new home construction volumes. The firm has a manufacturing hub at Harworth, Doncaster where it is investing in new manufacturing capacity to help improve the supply of construction materials. In 2017 it opened a new brick manufacturing factory and has announced it is to establish a new roof tile manufacturing facility during 2018.
