<p><span>Persimmon’s legal completions for 2023 may drop to <span>8,000 to 9,000 homes in the face of tough market conditions it said today, (March 1), after it announced a 2.1% rise in completions for 2022 against 2021 to 14,868</span> homes.</span></p> <p><span>Reporting on its results for the year ending December 31 2022, the volume housebuilder said it was “too early to assess” a full year sales rate, but this level of reduction was likely to occur if current sales rates were to continue for the rest of 2023.</span></p> <p><span>During the first eight weeks of 2023, private sales rates were 0.52 per outlet per week, an improvement on the 0.19 seen in the last seven weeks of 2022. But they were still “significantly below” the 0.96 during the equivalent period last year.</span></p> <p><span>Persimmon said lower completions would impact its margin, with a possible reduction of around </span><span>500bps if cost inflation were to persist at around 8% with no tempering from an increase in its homes’ average selling price.</span></p> <p><span>It added that operating margins could be “further impacted” by around 800bps by the reduced volumes, increased sales incentives and marketing costs.</span></p> <p><span>The company said it would be harder to mitigate the margin effect of …