Housebuilder Persimmon saw its pre-tax profit fall from £730.7m in 2022 to £351.8m for the financial year ended 31 December 2023.
In the reporting period, the company completed 9,922 new homes compared with 14,868 in 2022. Persimmon said it expected to deliver between 10,000 and 10,500 new completions in 2024 and that it had started the year in line with expectations, with its recent marketing campaign “generating a significant number of leads” for the housebuilder’s sales teams.
It warned that trading in southern and eastern counties remained challenging due to weaker pricing, but said this had been offset by a “more robust trading performance” in the northern regions.
Dean Finch, group chief executive of Persimmon, said: “The group successfully navigated the challenging market conditions in 2023. Completions were ahead of expectations, margins were industry-leading, we maintained our strong balance sheet and we continued to deliver further improvements in our product quality and service.
“Although the near-term outlook remains uncertain, the significant pent-up demand for homes remains unchanged. Customers want quality homes in the places where they want to live and work, and affordability is crucial. During the year we have continued to take further steps to strengthen the business and we are well placed to meet this demand through our three excellent brands offering different price ranges with overall private average selling prices that are below the market average. The investments and operational changes that we have made in the past few years mean that we are trusted by our customers to deliver consistently high-quality homes.
“We can achieve this while positioning the business to maintain industry-leading financial returns as markets recover, supported by our vertically integrated business model, strategic land buying and disciplined approach to cost control. Through further investments in innovation, I believe we can build even higher quality homes better, faster and more efficiently over time.
“We are well placed to manage the ongoing uncertainty and we have good visibility over our land pipeline which, over the medium-term, will support a return to growth in outlets and volumes, alongside improved margins and robust cash generation, paving the way for sustainable shareholder returns.”
