UK housebuilder Persimmon has reported a rise in sales reservations taken in the year to date of 12 per cent.
The company, which made the comments in a trading update released today, said that sales rates had previously been affected by uncertainty due to the UK’s planned austerity measures and particularly bad weather during November and December.
At the beginning of 2011, Persimmon had a sales order book of £565 million, lower than its £638 million of orders in January 2010.
Since then, however, sales have increased by 12 per cent when compared the same period a year earlier. Including legal completions during the year to date, orders now stand at £1.14 billion.
The company expects that the number of completions will rise during the second half of this year, compared with the same period last year.
Persimmon also commented that the number of visitors to site was “encouraging”, and that cancellation rates remain low, at around 16 per cent.
The company concluded by saying: “Whilst underlying prices remain stable we expect average selling prices to show improvement due to our strategy of continued mix change with more Charles Church homes being completed and a greater proportion of traditional family housing.”
Although there have been signs of returning consumer confidence in the UK’s housing sector, many analysts believe that the market could remain stagnant for another two years.
Founded in 1972 and headquartered in York, Persimmon builds around 10,000 new homes a year in more than 400 locations across the UK.
