Persimmon’s revenue up, profit down

Persimmon’s revenue and completions increased in its half year, but with pre-tax profit down.

Reporting on its six months ending June 30 2024, the volume housebuilder said its revenue totalled £1.32 billion against H1 2023’s £1.19 billion. Housing revenue rose to £1.17 billion from last year’s £1.09 billion.

During the half year, the housebuilder’s completions rose 5% to 4,445 new homes, with private completions up 14% to 3,742 homes.

Persimmon said it remained on track for full year completions of 10,500, at the top end of previous guidance. This is an improvement on 2023’s 9,922 homes, but still down on 2022’s 14,868.

Persimmon’s half year net private sales rate increased 20% to 0.71. But excluding bulk sales, this reduced to 0.59, although 5% up on 2023’s 0.56. The firm said this reflected improvement during the spring selling season compared to the autumn.

Meanwhile, pre-tax profit reduced to £146.3 million from 2023’s £151 million. This was, Persimmon said, due to its investment in land (it spent £195 million on this although down on 2023’s £240 million) and work in progress as it positions itself for “future growth”.

It also recorded net exceptional costs of £2 …