UPDATE 1-UK’s Persimmon reaffirms annual home-build targets on improved sales rate

(Adds company context in paragraph 2, CEO comment in paragraph 3 and sales details in paragraphs 4-5)

April 25 (Reuters) – British homebuilder Persimmon said on Thursday it was confident about the remainder of 2024 and reaffirmed its annual home-build targets after posting an improvement in first-quarter sales rate.

The British housing market has seen green shoots of stability at the start of 2024 on easing mortgage rates after battling subdued demand for most of last year, but the delay in central bank’s monetary policy loosening amid sticky inflation has tempered hopes of a better-paced recovery.

“Trading over recent weeks has been encouraging with robust visitor numbers and enquiries,” CEO Dean Finch said in a statement.

Net private sales rate per outlet was up 6% in the first quarter at 0.66 homes, Persimmon said. The numbers came in better than the 0.59 units reported for the first 10 weeks of 2024.

The company said its forward sales – a key industry metric that gauges near-term demand – stood at 1.75 billion pounds ($2.18 billion), as of April 25, compared with 1.69 billion pounds in the year-ago period.

($1 = 0.8013 pounds) (Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru and Suban Abdulla in London; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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