Persimmon looks to off-site to boost growth

Persimmon has seen robust trading since the start of the year with visitor levels to site, sales conversion rates and cancellation rates all running in line with the firm’s expectations.

In a trading statement issued today ahead of its AGM, 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).

Persimmon 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 …