Persimmon profits jump 34% as housing market grows

The FTSE 100 housebuilder said on Tuesday revenue for the year to 31 December 2015 had also risen 13% to £2.9bn.

That was driven by an 8% increase in legal completions rising to 14,572, and a 4.5% increase in the average selling price to £199,127.

The company also acquired another 20,501 plots of land in the 12 months, with 6,739 plots converted from the group's strategic land portfolio.

The company also commented that four years into its nine and a half year long term plan, its performance is significantly ahead of original expectations.

Since the launch of the plan in 2012, new home legal completions are ahead by over 55% and £733m of excess capital has been returned.

Chairman Nicholas Wrigley said the company has delivered an “outstanding” performance supported by improving customer sentiment and a mortgage market which is responding to customer demand.

“This strong growth results from working hard to open new outlets as quickly as possible following receipt of an implementable planning consent and from actively managing build programmes to secure improved rates of new home construction on every development site to meet demand,” he said.

The company also highlighted that the outlook is also looking bright, with forward sales including legal completions 12% ahead of 2015 so far.

“Customer activity in the first seven weeks of the 2016 spring season has been encouraging,” Wrigley said.

“Visitors to our sites are 12% ahead year on year, cancellations remain low and our weekly private sales rate is 13% ahead of the prior year.”

He believed the company is in a strong position to deliver further growth in 2016 supported by a refreshed outlet network of 380 active sites and its site opening programme for the year.