Persimmon’s 2025: double‑digit growth, rising margins and a busier 2026 in sight
Persimmon has posted a strong set of full-year numbers for 2025. Completions rose 12% to 11,905 homes, new housing revenue jumped 16% to £3.31bn, and underlying profit before tax increased 13% to £445.6m. Margins edged higher, the outlet base expanded again, and early 2026 trading is encouraging with a bigger forward order book.
The group is guiding to 12,000-12,500 completions in 2026 and expects underlying operating profit at the upper end of current consensus, with underlying PBT in line. There are moving parts – higher finance costs, heavy remediation cash outflows and geopolitical uncertainty – but the operational momentum is clear.
Headline numbers you need to know
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| New home completions | 11,905 | 10,664 | +12% |
| Average selling price (blended) | £278,203 | £268,499 | +4% |
| New housing revenue | £3.31bn | £2.86bn | +16% |
| Underlying operating profit | £472.1m | £405.2m | +17% |
| Underlying operating margin | 14.3% | 14.1% | +20bps |
| Underlying profit before tax | £445.6m | £395.1m | +13% |
| Statutory profit before tax | £397.3m | £359.1m | +11% |
| Cash at 31 December | £117.0m | £258.6m | £(141.6)m |
| Dividend per share | 60p | 60p | Unchanged |
What powered the performance
Volume-led growth, helped by three distinct brands
Completions grew across Persimmon, Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships. Private completions were 9,830 (up 8%) at an average selling price of £301,392 (up 5%), while 2,075 homes were delivered to housing associations (up 31%). Investor and build-to-rent deliveries rose 21% to 1,758 homes.
Persimmon also kept incentives tight at around 4.6% per gross reservation. That discipline, plus the value positioning of its core brand and the premium relaunch of Charles Church, helped underpin pricing and mix.
Vertical integration smoothed costs and supported margins
Underlying operating margin ticked up to 14.3% despite embedded build cost inflation coming into the year. In-house bricks, tiles and timber frames made a tangible difference: c.60 million bricks were produced (up 23%) and c.12 million tiles (up 54%), with Space4 timber frame output up 36%. This integration helps on availability, cost and consistency – all good for margins and delivery.
Outlets and planning doing the heavy lifting
Outlets ended the year at 277 (up 3%), with 103 new openings in 2025 and plans to open more than 100 in 2026. Detailed planning was secured for 12,815 plots – 108% of completions – and total land holdings increased to 84,879 plots. Strategic land also stepped up, now over 77,000 potential plots, assisted by the Lone Star Land acquisition.
Early 2026 trading: sales pace up, order book fatter
In the first nine weeks of 2026, the net private sales rate per outlet per week was 0.73, up 9% year on year (2025: 0.67). The private average selling price in the order book is up 6%.
Forward sales as at 1 March stood at £1.80bn (up 6%), with private at £1.25bn (up 9%) and housing association at £0.55bn. Management notes stronger mortgage availability and real wage growth, while acknowledging the potential impact of the Iran conflict on sentiment, build costs and interest rates.
Cash, investment and the balance sheet
Persimmon is leaning into growth. Net land spend rose to £541m, work in progress investment to £1.63bn (up 15%), and outlets are set to expand again. That investment, plus higher land creditors and remediation, meant year-end cash fell to £117.0m and net finance costs rose to £26.5m.
Land creditors increased to £623.4m, with around £355m due in 2026. To keep headroom healthy, the revolving credit facility was lifted to £750m (to July 2030) and a £250m term loan agreed to January 2028, taking total secured funding to £1bn. Facilities were undrawn at year end.
Building safety: good progress, peak cash outflows to come
Persimmon reports c.90% of known developments either fully tendered, on site or completed, with 43 of 87 developments completed and 24 currently on site. The legacy buildings provision stands at £226.0m after a £39.8m top-up in 2025; around £100m is expected to be spent in 2026. The group also made a £15.2m ex-gratia contribution to the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme following the CMA process.
On quality, Persimmon maintained five-star HBF status and an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating, and recorded a 310bps improvement in NHBC Construction Quality Review scores to 92.6%.
Guidance and what to watch in 2026
- Completions guidance: 12,000-12,500 homes.
- Underlying operating profit: towards the upper end of the £486m-£517m consensus range.
- Underlying PBT: expected in line with consensus (mean £470m).
- Dividend: 60p for 2025 maintained (final 40p proposed, payable 10 July 2026, subject to AGM approval).
- Year-end 2026 net cash outlook: between £100m net debt and £100m net cash, reflecting investment and remediation spend.
My take: why this matters for investors
The positives
- Rare volume growth: +12% completions in a tricky market shows the outlet and planning strategy is working.
- Order book momentum: private forward sales up 9% and early 2026 sales rate up 9% give decent visibility.
- Margin resilience: a 20bps improvement to 14.3% despite cost pressures highlights the benefit of vertical integration.
- Diversified channels: growth across private, housing associations and build-to-rent reduces reliance on any single buyer group.
- Land and pipeline: 12,815 plots consented and over 77,000 strategic plots support the medium-term growth plan.
The watch-fors
- Cash and finance costs: cash fell to £117.0m, land creditors rose to £623.4m, and finance costs increased – both will matter as investment continues.
- Remediation drag: £226.0m provision remaining and c.£100m of spend expected in 2026 keep pressure on near-term cash.
- Macro and geopolitics: management calls out the potential impact of the Iran conflict on sentiment, inflation and rates; no help from assumed mortgage cuts or new stimulus in guidance.
- Build-to-rent timing: deliveries rose in 2025, but the late-year budget pause trimmed the forward order book – watch for deals restarting as investors re-engage.
Jargon buster
- Forward sales: homes exchanged or reserved with a contracted value, but not yet completed.
- Net private sales rate per outlet per week: the pace of private reservations divided by active sites – a core demand indicator for housebuilders.
- Underlying (or adjusted) profit: excludes exceptional items such as building safety charges or one-off gains/losses to show the underlying trading performance.
- ROCE (return on average capital employed): a profitability measure comparing operating profit with the capital tied up in the business.
- Vertical integration: Persimmon manufactures key materials (bricks, tiles, timber frames) in-house to control cost, quality and supply.
- Land creditors: deferred payments due on land already contracted, settled over time as sites progress.
Bottom line
Persimmon has built real momentum: more outlets, more homes, better margins and a stronger early 2026 order book. Guidance implies another step up in volumes this year, with operating profit set to grow again. The flip side is higher finance costs and a heavy – but finite – period of building safety cash outflows.
For long-term holders, the combination of outlet growth, planning wins and vertical integration looks powerful. Near term, keep an eye on weekly sales rates, margin progress and cash as the group pushes for scale.
