Persimmon says too soon to judge Brexit impact; first half 'strong'

Housebuilder Persimmon said it was still too soon to judge the effect of Brexit on the new homes market, adding that trading through the first half had been “strong”.

“We believe that market fundamentals remain strong, supported by long term unfulfilled demand, and that the UK housing market will continue to provide good opportunities for those companies with the right strategic focus and the balance sheet strength to navigate future changes in trading conditions,” the company said in a statement

The group increased its legal completion volumes by 6% to 7,238 new homes in the period. With the average selling price of around £205,500 having increased by 6%. Group revenues of £1.49bn were 12% ahead of last year.

“As anticipated, low borrowing costs and healthy labour market conditions continued to support consumer confidence through the first half of the year. Mortgage approvals for home purchase in the first quarter of 2016 were 18% ahead of the prior year,” Persimmon said.

“Approvals remained ahead of last year for the April/May period despite a period of increasing uncertainty leading up to the EU referendum and notwithstanding strong prior year comparatives in the period following the UK election in May 2015. We continued to take good levels of sales through May and June with our private sales rate being around 1% ahead year on year. “

Persimmon said it continued to experience delays to the start of construction on new development sites due to "local inefficiencies in the planning system and despite the welcome improvements that continue to be made to planning processes by the government".

"However, the group has an excellent pipeline of a further 100 new outlets on which construction is expected to commence in the second half," it said.