Persimmon sees ongoing recovery in homebuyer demand

The Charles Church group said build cost inflation has remained at around 8% to 9%, with ‘limited signs of easing in the short term’.

Housebuilder Persimmon has said demand from home buyers has continued to recover throughout the first quarter and into April, but revealed there was little respite from soaring build costs (Owen Humphreys/PA) (PA Archive)

Housebuilder Persimmon has said demand from homebuyers has continued to recover throughout the first quarter and into April, but revealed there was little respite from soaring build costs.

The Charles Church group said recent weeks had seen “some signs of encouragement”, with rising numbers of visitors to its sales sites, more normal levels of cancellations and sales rates steadily improving.

It said if sales continue to rebound, it hopes to deliver build completions towards the top end of its expected range of 8,000 to 9,000 completions, helping shares lift 4% in morning trading on Wednesday.