<p><span class="lr"><span>Persimmon’s pre-tax profit fell 25% in 2020 with completions down 14% in the face of the pandemic, but with the business reporting a strong second half.</span></span></p> <p><span class="lr"><span>During the year ending December 31 2020, the volume housebuilder’s new home legal completions totalled </span></span><span>13,575</span><span> against 2019’s 15,855. The homes’ average selling price rose 6.9% to £230,534; this was mainly due to a 6.5% increase in the proportion of new homes sold to private owner occupiers.</span></p> <p><span>Pre-tax profit dropped from £1,040.8</span><span> million in 2019 to £783.8m million. Persimmon generated total revenues of </span><span class="lr"><span>£3,328.3 million against the previous year’s £3,649.4 million, with new housing revenue down to £3,129.5 million (2019: £3,420.1 million) on reduced completions.</span></span></p> <p><span class="lr"><span>With pandemic-induced build delays, the company’s first half completions fell 35% to 4,900 against H1 2019. But Persimmon said this disruption was balanced by “resilient” customer demand, government support “and the group's ability to maintain a good degree of operational continuity”. </span></span></p> <p><span class="lr"><span>These factors, alongside strong forward build levels at the end of June and build rates returning to pre-Covid times, gave Persimmon a robust second half, it said, with the business delivering 8,675 new homes in H2 2020.</span></span></p> <p><span class="lr"><span>This was reflected in …