Housebuilding giants report bumper profits

Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey reported pre-tax profits of £774.8m and £733.4m respectively for 2016.

“The early signs of stability and resilience of the market following the EU Referendum, which were encouraging, continued and we believe the risk of material impact from this in the short term has significantly reduced,” said Taylor Wimpey in its annual financial statement.

Taylor Wimpey’s annual revenue was £3.67bn, up 17.1% on a year ago. It completed 13,881 homes in 2016, an increase of 4% on 2015, while the overall average selling price increased by 11% to £255,000 (2015: £230,000).

It recorded a 2016 year-end order book valued at £1.68bn, excluding joint ventures. This represents 7,567 homes and it entered 2017 with 285 developments.

Meanwhile, Persimmon’s revenues increased 8% to £3.13bn (2015: £2.9bn). It delivered 15,171 homes to customers across the UK, an increase of 599 on a year ago. The Group’s average selling price of £206,765 was 3.8% higher (2015: £199,127).