Persimmon Says Customer Activity Strengthens, Sees Strong Growth Ahead

(RTTNews) - Home builder Persimmon Plc. (PSN.L) released its third-quarter trading statement for the period up to 3 November 2015, saying that as it moved into the autumn selling season, customer activity strengthened in line with the traditional seasonality of the market.

The company noted that its private sales rate in the period since it reported half year results on 18 August 2015 was 12 percent ahead of last year, building on the 5 percent stronger sales rate through the summer weeks.

According to the company, the level of customer interest in its sites was encouraging with visitor numbers running 5 percent ahead of last year. Pricing remained robust across its regional markets.

Further, Persimmon noted that mortgage approval volumes for house purchase in September were 13 percent ahead year on year.

Looking ahead, the company expects to continue to generate strong growth, having successfully opened 105 new housing developments in the second half to date.

The company also expects its operating margin to progress in the second half of the year from 20.5 percent achieved in the first six months. The company added that it is now fully sold up for the current year and has 780 million pounds of forward sales reserved beyond 2015, up 12 percent on the same point last year.