<p>Persimmon has said its performance in 2020 was “robust”, although its completions fell 14% <span>to 13,575</span> against 2019 with the effects of the pandemic.</p> <p><span>Giving a trading update ahead of its full year results to be released on March 3, the volume housebuilder said its strong trading performance in the second half of 2020, in which it delivered 8,675 new home legal completions, mitigated some of the impact of delays caused by the market shutdown in the first half.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>For its financial year ending December 31 2020, Persimmon’s total group revenues were £3.33 billion against 2019’s £3.65 billion with new housing revenues slipping to £3.13 billion from the previous year’s £3.42 billion.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Its average selling price rose 7% to £230,500, due to the 6% higher proportion of new homes delivered to owner occupiers in Persimmon’s total sales for the year, it said.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>During the second half of the year, the company’s average weekly sales rate per site was 39% above H2 2019, partly resulting from the government’s stamp duty holiday, announced in July.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>In the final quarter of the year, sales returned to “more normalised levels” after the release of pent up demand, and Persimmon working through stock.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>In recent …