Persimmon makes strong start, but notes pre-election uncertainty

16th Apr 2015 07:57

UK housebuilder Persimmon said the ongoing economic recovery helped it make an "encouraging start" to 2015, though political uncertainty ahead of the elections next month was affecting the land market.Total forward sales revenues over the first 15 weeks of the year are up 7% on 2014 at £2bn.Weekly private sales rates per site were up 6%, while the 7,375 new homes sold forward into the private sale market for 2015 achieved an average selling price of £207,900, up 4%.The group also said that visitor numbers to its home-finder websites were up 20% over the same time last year."Customer confidence is being supported by the ongoing improvement in UK economic performance and the mortgage market continues to offer customers the opportunity to access mortgage credit on very attractive terms," it added.However, Persimmon did acknowledge that political uncertainty means it has become increasingly difficult to secure planning consents for sites in the land market. "While we would expect such delays to be short term in nature, they are hindering the expansion in the number of active outlets required by the housebuilding industry to support an increase in the volume of newly built homes delivered to the market."The group, which has pledged to return £1.9bn of surplus capital to shareholders in the 10 years to 2021, said it has so far returned £733m, over £500m more than was originally planned at this stage.The stock was down 1.5% at 1,733p in early trading on Thursday.