Persimmon pins hopes on H2 as revenue slides

Persimmon’s revenue and profit have slumped for the first half of the year, despite rising house prices. The housebuilder completed 6,652 homes over the period, down from H1 2021’s 7,406. Revenue slipped from £1.84bn to £1.69bn as pretax profit fell from £480m to £437.9m. This is despite margins increasing slightly and the selling price rising from £236,199 to £245,597. Group chief executive Dean Finch said: “We continue to expect our volume delivery to be significantly higher in the second half of the year.” Persimmon said it was on track to build around 15,000 homes by the year end. Cost inflation, currently running at between 8-10%, was being mitigated by sales price inflation. Meanwhile demand is still strong with a forward order book of £2.32bn, up from H1 last year of £2.23bn.   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Photo: Persimmon