But pricing and margins remain under pressure at housebuilder

Persimmon today said its pricing and margins remained under pressure while its sales volumes were ahead of expectations.

In an interim management statement released today, the UK housebuilder added that it currently had around 6,500 homes reserved, contracted or legally completed, with total sales revenue of £960m.

It said that visitor numbers for the year-to-date were “resilient” although 15% down on the same period last year. Cancellation rates averaged 16% – an improvement on the 35% rate for the final quarter of 2008.


Persimmon houses
Visitors to Persimmon sites dropped by only 15%

The firm said it had continued to reduce the number of active sites as well as its holdings of part-exchange property, which are down to £30m from £55m at the end of 2008.

Persimmon said its borrowings were £680m at the end of March, down from £1.03bn the same time last year. It said it expected to reduce net debt still further and would “continue to monitor the land market”,

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