National housebuilder Persimmon is back into profit and has already secured £900m-worth of orders since the start of 2010.
Its pre-tax profits for 2009 totalled £77.8m (2008: £780m loss), boosted by rising land value, on sales of £1.42bn (2008: £1.76bn). Underlying pre-tax profits were only £7m, though in the second half there was a turnaround in profitability – £23.7m, compared with a £16.7m loss in the first half.
Completions were down to 8,976 (2008: 10,202).
Its Space4 timber frame division has seen a substantial improvement in the second half, with extended working hours required to keep pace with demand, attributed to the need for increased energy efficiency for private housing and changes to the Space4 Eco housing range.
Full-year production was 2,089 units (2008: 1,238), with 85% being used by the group. The Space4 forward order book is 2,400 units.
