Housebuilder has now spent £120m on safety works with 30% of remediation jobs still yet to start
Persimmon spent £60m on building safety remediation last year, half of the total amount the housebuilder has spent on making its homes safer.
A trading update published this morning revealed the firm has now spent £120m on building safety works, with work still yet to start or complete on 30% of known developments.
The bill contributed to the firm’s net cash dropping by 38% to £260m from the £460m it held in 2023, a fall of £160m, although it said the figure was ahead of previous guidance.
The update follows a successful year which saw its completions grow by 7% compared to last year with improving market conditions pushing the housebuilder’s average selling price for homes up by 5%.
It completed a total of 10,664 homes in 2024, up from the 9,922 completed in 2023.
Private home completions were up 18% to 9,075, from the 7,681 completed in 2023, although its number of homes delivered through partnerships fell from 2,241 in 2023 to 1,589 last year.
The firm said its full-year underlying pre-tax profit would be at the upper end of market expectations of £349m to £390m with underlying profit margins staying similar to 2023. Its full final results for the 12 months to 31 December 2024 will be published on 11 March.
Persimmon group chief executive Dean FInch said customer enquiries and sales rates had been “consistently ahead” of 2023 since the spring selling season.
“Persimmon has worked hard and is well positioned for the future, supported by the land and planning investment we have made in recent years, our vertical integration capabilities and our excellent teams,” he said.
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“This investment, coupled with the government’s ambitious planning reforms which demand more of the high-quality, affordable homes which are Persimmon’s core strength, supports our growth ambitions in the medium-term.”
Its net spend on land during the year was £440m, up from £398m in 2023, with the firm now holding a total of 82,100 plots, compared to 82,235 in 2023.
Its average selling price for the year was £268,500, up from £255,752 in 2023, while its number of sales outliers grew by 5% from 258 to 270.
Persimmon had a turnover of £2.8bn in 2023, down from £3.82bn in 2022, with pre-tax profit falling to £352m from £731m in 2022.
The firm is due to announce its 2024 results on 11 March.
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