Persimmon has delivered an upbeat trading statement, reporting a 19% jump in weekly private house sales since the start of September compared to a year ago.
The housebuilder also says first-time buyer visitors to its sites are 35% higher thanks to the government’s FirstBuy share equity scheme which was introduced in July.
It is also fully sold for 2011 and has £460m forward sales beyond 2011 – a 7% increase on 2010.
Persimmon says it is confident of building on its first-half underlying operating profit margin of 9% during the second half of the year.
“We anticipate sales volumes for the full year will be consistent with the previous year at more than 9,300 legal completions,” it said.
Due to increased first-time buyer activity, average house selling prices for the full year are likely to be slightly lower than the £169,000 recorded in 2010. Current average selling prices of private houses are £190,080 (2010: £188,329).
Persimmon expects to maintain around 390 active sites through to the start of 2012.
