Persimmon pauses site openings and says recovery ‘too early to call’

By Joey Gardiner2023-01-12T11:50:00

Housebuilder says it has been hit hard by combination of rising rates and closure of Help to Buy

The UK’s most profitable housebuilder has said it has paused or renegotiated terms on around 30 development sites as it says it is too early to predict when a recovery in the housing market might occur.

Persimmon, which reported pre-tax profit of just under £1bn in 2021, said in a full year trading update for last year that it had suffered a double hit in the last three months as mortgage rates had spiked at exactly the same time as the end of the Help to Buy programme – with the effects combining to approximately double the cost of purchasing for some first-time buyers.

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