Persimmon has revealed its revenue increased by 9% in 2017 ahead of its final results for the year ended 31 December 2017.

In a trading update today, 09 January, the developer reported revenue stood at £3.42 billion for the year (2016: £3.14bn) while completions were up 6% (872 units) to 16,043 new homes (2016; 15,171.

In addition, the Group's average selling price rose by 3% to around £213,300 (2016: £206,765).

"We continued to experience healthy customer demand for new homes through the autumn sales season and the value of our forward sales at 31 December 2017 of c. £1,355m was 10% ahead of the prior year (2016: £1,234m)," the Group said.

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"Second half legal completion volumes of 8,249 were 455 stronger than for the first half of the year (H1: 7,794), an increase of 6%."

Elsewhere, Persimmon has expanded its manufacturing capabilities with work on a new brick manufacturing plant in Harworth, near Doncaster, now complete and deliveries of bricks to site commencing. A further 197 sales outlets were also opened over the course of the year, with 375 active sales outlets in total.

The Group said: "We continue to invest for future growth and have acquired c. 17,300 plots of new land at excellent margins in over 80 locations throughout the UK during the year.

"We remain mindful of market risks including those associated with the uncertainty arising from the UK leaving the EU. However, we are keen to deliver further improvement in our housing output and remain ready to invest wherever the local planning environment is supportive."

Persimmon said it anticipates pre-tax profits for the year to be "modestly ahead of market consensus" and its Final Results will be released on 27 February 2018.

(LM)