<p>Persimmon’s private sales reservation rates have remained “well ahead” of 2019 since July, the volume housebuilder said today (November 9). Meanwhile, Vistry has noted “some signs of improvement” in materials shortages and pricing pressures.</p><p>Issuing a trading update for the period from July 1 to November 8, Persimmon said that its average private new homes sales reservation rate per site per week was around 16% up on the equivalent period of 2019. </p><p>Sales were now following, as expected, “a more normal seasonal pattern when compared to 2020”. Persimmon added that the market had taken the changes to Help to Buy and the stamp duty holiday “in its stride”.</p><p>It also reiterated its expectation of growing home sale completions by around 10% for its full year, against 2020’s 13,575. It is targeting a return to 2019 volumes next year. Persimmon has £1.15 billion of forward sales reserved beyond the current year.</p><p>Dean Finch, Persimmon’s group ceo, said: "While the industry continues to face challenges in the UK planning system, we are successfully bringing new land into construction and growing our already strong UK wide outlet network.</p><p>"With £1.15 billion of forward sales reserved beyond the current year and a quality pipeline of new developments coming …