Persimmon sees general improvement

16th Nov 2009 07:26

Leading housebuilder Persimmon has started to buy sizeable parcels of land again as sales have recovered to the point where it is fully sold this year, while orders for 2010 are up 50%.Since August 2009, trading activity levels have continued ahead of last year and the buiilder expects to legally complete 9,000 homes in 2009. It remains concerned about the potential impact of any significant increase in unemployment, but overall trading has improved."Sales volumes over recent weeks have continued to be satisfactory with the encouraging rate of sales achieved through the summer months being maintained during the autumn period. Prices have also held firm." it said."Forward sales are now well ahead of last year and we expect to carry forward a healthy order book into 2010. We are currently fully sold up for 2009 and have a further c. £500m of sales already taken for 2010 which is c. 50% ahead of the same point last year," it added."Continued good visitor levels, low cancellation rates of c. 16% and the increase of 6% in the average selling price of homes reserved since 1 July 2009 to £173,000 provides a more positive position, with modest price growth in some regional markets," the update said.Persimmon added that in this half it has bought 2,850 plots on 34 new sites, including 350 plots from its strategic landbank. Borrowings at the year end are expected to be "significantly lower than the £400m guidance we gave at the announcement of our half year results," it added.