Persimmon to boost sales revenue by 35%

Persimmon brought further good news for the UK housing market today, saying it has already secured enough forward sales to boost its sales revenue for 2014 by 35% over the previous year.

The FTSE 100 housebuilder said it has around 7,200 new homes sold forward for 2014, and the average selling price has climbed 3% to £200,400.

Current total forward sales now top £1.87 billion for 2014, which includes legal completions taken so far this year.

Investors were unsurprised by the news, however, and the shares rose just 1.42% to 1,283p, still well shy of their 52-week high of 1,508p.

Like rival Barratt Developments, the shares were heavily sold last week as investors indiscriminately took profits.

The York-based firm said during the financial year's first 15 weeks of trading it had attracted 10% more visitors to its 385 sites compared with the previous year.

Cancellation rates over this period are down to historically low levels and its build activity continues to support the burgeoning sales.

The firm took the opportunity to applaud the four-year extension of the government's Help to Buy scheme to March 2020 saying it gives "housebuilders... the opportunity to continue to increase the industry's development commitments in support of increasing the number of new homes delivered to the market over the medium term".

Around 5,000 new homes have been sold to its customers using mortgages associated with the government sponsored-shared equity scheme.

It also announced it has reached an agreement with its banks to extend its £300 million revolving credit facility to March 2019.

Subject to shareholder approval at the annual general meeting, the second payment of the Capital Return Plan of 70p per share, totalling around £213 million, will be paid on 4 July.