York-based house building giant Persimmon plc said its 2025 first-half revenue grew 14% to £1.50 billion and underlying profit before tax rose 11% to £164.9 million.
Persimmon said it delivered 4,605 housing completions in the first half of the year, a 4% increase on the same period last year and is on track for completions of 11,000-11,500 homes for the full year.
Persimmon’s average sales price on completions rose 8% to £284,047.
In its results for the six months to June 30, 2025, Persimmon said: “There have been some positive developments in the first half of the year, with targeted relaxation of some lending rules and real term pay rises helping to improve affordability for some.
“Nonetheless, this has been balanced with the impact of council tax, national insurance, stamp duty and energy bill increases in April, alongside macroeconomic uncertainty weighing on consumer sentiment.
“While interest and mortgage rates have reduced, they are at levels that still present a barrier to many potential customers.”
Persimmon has mainatined its interim dividend of 20p per share and said it intends “as a minimum” to maintain the 2024 dividend of 60p per share “with a view to growing this over time.”
Persimmon CEO Dean Finch said: “I am pleased that we have continued to grow in the first half of the year despite challenging market conditions and with affordability still an important constraint.
“Our average sales price, sales, completions, planning approvals, active sites and forward order book are all up, many against industry trends, showing that our strategy including a focus on self-help has continued to deliver.
“An improvement in operating profit and return on capital demonstrate the benefit of our on-going operational discipline.
“We continue to invest in our key capabilities to further strengthen this growing platform. Disciplined investment in land is being complemented by planning success to secure additional site openings.
“Our vertical integration strengths have been further enhanced, with more efficiency benefits to come. Our three-brand strategy is helping to increase sales, with investment in marketing seeking to drive further growth.
“We are on course to deliver our previously guided range of 11,000-11,500 completions this year. While mindful of macroeconomic volatility we remain focused on driving further improvements to secure the medium-term growth ambitions we set out in March.
“Given our strong progress with building safety remediation, we anticipate being able to review our capital allocation policy when the programme of works is substantially complete.”