Persimmon H1 2026 Earnings Report

Persimmon EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 38
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Persimmon Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Persimmon Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2026
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 6, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 4:00AM ET

Persimmon (LON:PSN), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a house builder in the United Kingdom. The company offers family housing under the Persimmon Homes brand name; housing under the Charles Church brand name; and social housing under the Westbury Partnerships brand name. It also provides broadband services under the FibreNest brand; and timber frame, insulated wall panels, and roof cassettes under the brand Space4. Further, it offers concrete bricks and roof tile. Persimmon Plc was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in York, the United Kingdom.

Persimmon H1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Persimmon delivered strong first-half growth, with completions up 13% to 5,189, underlying operating profit up 10% to £189 million, and underlying PBT up 3% to £170 million. Growth was supported by higher volumes, overhead discipline, and increased first-time-buyer sales.
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised full-year completion guidance to around 12,500 homes, the top end of its previous range, supported by a £1.9 billion forward order book, a 5% increase in the private order book, and an affordable housing order book fully secured for the year.
• Negative Sentiment: Gross margin declined to 18% due to a less favorable affordable-housing mix, higher incentives, and build-cost inflation, with management expecting continued margin pressure through the second half and into 2027. Persimmon estimates an additional £40 million–£50 million cost impact over the next 18 months, partly linked to the Middle East conflict.
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted substantial medium-term growth capacity, including nearly 81,000 owned and controlled plots, around 93,000 strategic-land plots including recent promoter acquisitions, and plans to open at least 100 outlets this year. The company remains focused on reaching at least 300 outlets and achieving a 20% operating margin and ROCE over the medium term.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent trading softened modestly, with the private sales rate excluding bulk falling to 0.59 over the last five weeks, although the total private forward order book rose 5%. Building-remediation work remains a cash and execution consideration, with £206 million provisioned and ongoing cost-recovery efforts from the supply chain.

Presentation

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Good morning, everybody. It's 9:00, so I'll make a start. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for joining Andrew and I. I've also got Liam here. As you know, Liam has taken over from Ian, along with Chris. Unfortunately, Chris is on holiday. Well, fortunately, Chris is on holiday for Chris, so he's a happy boy. You can catch up with Liam and the rest of us later. I'm pleased to be presenting a strong first half performance. These results again confirm that Persimmon is delivering growth today while building a larger, stronger, and higher return business for the future. We've increased volumes, grown market share, and strengthened our operational platform.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

We've done that whilst also continuing to invest in land, outlets, and capabilities that will support long term value creation. Although the market remains challenging, we're responding from a position of strength, including with our typical self-help, and we remain confident in our medium term ambitions. Let me start with the strategic context and highlights from the first half before handing over to Andrew. You've seen this slide before.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our strategy remains consistent and it's clearly delivering. At its core, this is about building a differentiated business that can grow sustainably through the cycle. We have a high quality land bank and a growing outlet platform, giving us the visibility and the ability to increase volumes over time. We have three strong and growing brands, each serving distinct customer segments and giving us more routes to more markets. We've made significant progress on build quality and customer service, strengthening our reputation and supporting sales. We continue to invest in innovation and our vertical integration.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

That improves efficiency, resilience, and cost control. Importantly, we're doing all of this with a strong balance sheet. That allows us to invest where and when returns are attractive while continuing to support sustainable shareholder returns. These strategic priorities are increasingly powerful in combination. They're deriving performance today and they position us well for further growth. Indeed, they're designed to produce a 20% operating margin and ROCE in the medium term and underpin our focus on progressively improving returns over time. I'll turn to our first half performance, which has been strong in what has been a challenging market.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

The first half has shown clear operational progress. Our underlying PBT was up 3% to GBP 170 million, reflecting a margin impact from housing association mix, build cost inflation, and an interest charge from our investment in growth. Average outlets in the period were 273, up from 272 last year, and I'll say more on this later. Net private weekly sales were 205, up 7%, with the net private sales rate including bulk improving to 0.75. I'm really pleased that growth in outlets and sales rate have driven completions to 5,189, up 13%.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

As we say more about later, an increase in first time buyers demonstrates the strength of our affordability. Importantly, we've maintained our five star status for five years. We secured detailed planning permission on over 6,100 plots, 118% of completions, which further strengthens our outlet pipeline. The Persimmon land bank remains a key asset. We've nearly 81,000 owned and controlled plots. In addition, our strategic land bank stands at around 82,000 plots. Our forward order book is GBP 1.9 billion with our private forward order book up 5%. I think that taken together, this is a very strong relative performance in the period. I'll now hand over to Andrew to take you through the numbers in detail and which are delivering growth.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Thank you, Dean. Morning, everyone. My key message for the first half year is simple. We've delivered volume led profit growth in a challenging market while maintaining balance sheet discipline and making appropriate investments to support future returns. We've delivered strong growth in both volumes and operating profit, building on the period on period growth we've delivered since the beginning of 2024. New home completions are up 13%, and they're up 22% over the last three years. Housing revenue is up to nearly GBP 1.5 billion and gross profit is up to GBP 267 million. Gross margin was lower at 18%, and that reflects the product mix, including a higher proportion of affordable homes, some higher incentives, and cost pressures.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

I expect continued margin pressure in the second half year and 2027, but the medium term opportunities remain clear. Underlying operating profit increased 10% to GBP 189 million, driven by higher volumes and overhead discipline, with operating margin at 12.8%. Underlying PBT is up 3% as we flagged in March, this includes increased interest costs because of lower cash balances and higher land creditors. Underlying EPS has increased 3% to GBP 0.38. Overall, this growth is driven by our strategy.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Higher volumes, cost disciplines are supporting profit growth despite increased build costs and mix effects. Return on capital has also increased up 10%-11.3%, with net assets per share up 3%. I'll now explain the sales mix and the pricing that sit behind this performance. Really pleasingly, all three of our brands grew in the first half year, and this reflects a strong sales rate and an increased average number of outlets. Our total sales per week, including bulk, increased to 205.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Of the new homes delivered, 4,261 were private. That's 7% higher than last year. The split between Persimmon and Charles Church is shown on the slide, and there was particularly strong growth in Charles Church. Private completions included 548 bulk sales. That's fewer than in the first half of last year. We said previously that reservations in the build-to-rent market slowed in Q4 last year, and you can see the effect of that flowing through into first half year completions. Today, the build-to-rent market is open.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We remain very engaged with it, and I expect bulk completions to increase in H2, assuming that that market remains stable. 36% of private sales were to first time buyers, and that's actually becomes 41% of open market private sales. This is a really important market for us. Our homes are well positioned for first time buyers because they are designed to be affordable. I think it's particularly interesting our sales to first time buyers have grown 14% compared to H1 2025 at a time that Connells Research suggests the overall first time buyer market has only grown by 1%.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Finally, partnerships output to registered providers grew very strongly by 50% to 928 units, and that is 18% of total completions. That's within the typical range. It was a bit lower in the first half last year. As I said at the start, all three brands grew their volume in the first half and the fact that the brands are all at affordable prices is a strength in the current market. The blended ASP on completions in the period was up 1% and private ASP increased 3%.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Pricing has been robust, particularly in the north of England and in Scotland. We've increased average prices in both Persimmon and Charles Church. Our brands are deliberately focused at the value end of their respective markets. With our Persimmon Homes average selling price still well below the new build national average and over half of completions below GBP 300,000. Incentives on completions are around the 5% mark, similar to the second half of last year and a bit higher than the 4.5% we had in H1 2025.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Let me show you now how our volume increase has driven up operating profit. You'll be aware that in the current market, margins have been coming under pressure across the industry and we flagged this in March. Our strategy has driven volume growth and has increased operating profit. On a margin basis, the reduction from 13.1%-12.8% includes the effect of more HA units in the mix, which diluted margin by about 40 basis points. Beyond that, the benefits of volume leverage have helped offset cost pressures and increased incentives.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Net operating expenses improved by GBP 12.5 million, that includes lower admin costs despite the increased volume and some additional land sale profits. Our volume growth, tight overhead control has helped mitigate the impact of cost increases in the period and has enabled us to report an increase in operating profit. This also provides confidence for the future that we can deliver our medium-term margin and return ambitions.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We'll do this by continuing to drive volume leverage while progressing our other operational priorities, trading out of older, lower margin sites, acquiring quality land to improve gross margin, improving the mix of delivery across our brands and strengthening vertical integration. As well as volume, another key driver of growth is our balance sheet. Our balance sheet continues to provide a strong platform to invest in growth. As we announced in March, we now have GBP 1 billion of committed bank facilities, very important in providing both resilience and growth opportunities.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We had gearing at the end of June due to payment of land creditors and investment in WIP for delivery in H2. Adjusted gearing, including land creditors, is 18% that's in the range that we indicated earlier in the year. We held GBP 168 million of PX stock at the end of June. That is lower than at the start of the year and almost exactly the same as this time last year. Net debt is GBP 165 million, I expect our year-end net cash to be in line with our previous guidance. Net assets are up 4% since this time last year, net assets per share are GBP 0.37 higher than this time last year. I'm pleased that return on capital is also higher than this time last year.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Net assets are up partly, as I say, because of the repayment of our land creditors. I'll now cover our investment in land in a bit more detail. There's two key points. Firstly, our strong balance sheet and our clear strategy is allowing us to continue to pursue land opportunities in a disciplined way. Secondly, our land bank will provide the opportunity for us to continue to grow outlets and grow the business. In the period, the owned and controlled land bank reduced by 4,000 units with fewer new sites acquired in Q2.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Taken together with the increased plots in the strategic land bank, we've gone forward in the period overall. Land cost to anticipated revenue has stayed similar to last year. The embedded site margin is slightly down due to the increased build costs that we're factoring in, but as Dean will come onto, we are working hard to mitigate this. We're on site at most of the schemes in the lower margin categories, over 60% of our sites are above the 27% embedded margin, which is why our margin will begin to recover as we trade through the older, lower margin sites.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

I'll now cover our progress on building remediation. This work is important, we're continuing to make progress. At June 30th, we were on site or completed at 79% of known developments. We've assessed all our known developments, 95% of these are now tendered. We continue to make progress. We've completed about GBP 24 million worth of work in the period, bringing total work to date to over GBP 200 million. We'll spend as close to GBP 100 million as we can this year, we're continuing to actively pursue recoveries from the supply chain. Our closing provision is GBP 206 million, that's GBP 20 million lower than at the start of the year.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

This remains complex works, as I've always said, there remains cost risk on all of these sites until they are completed. As this work concludes, we'll generate more free cash for the business and capital allocations for the group, you can see that on our cash flow bridge. Net debt at June 30th was GBP 165 million. We're continuing to invest where we see attractive returns while maintaining a strong balance sheet and significant liquidity.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

The movement in cash since December reflects disciplined investment to support growth in 2026 and in 2027, including investment in WIP for H2 delivery. Land creditors have reduced GBP 132 million. That reflects the deferred payment terms that we entered into over the last year or so. Interest costs have increased, as I've already referred to. To the right-hand side is our capital allocation choice, we've spent GBP 24 million on building remediation, as I've just said.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

In H1, our new land commitment was actually lower than our land utilization, partly reflecting that extra discipline in the second quarter. I expect us to continue to invest in new land through the second half year, and I expect year-end cash to be in line with previous guidance. Our capital allocation policy is designed to create shareholder value. We generate returns greater than our cost of capital, and we are typically trading at a premium to or around net asset value. This creates an opportunity to drive value by investing for growth.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

The structure of our capital allocation policy is largely unchanged. Firstly, we're maintaining a strong balance sheet while prioritizing dealing with building safety remediation. Secondly, we're investing in the business to deliver our growth objectives, and we assume disciplined replenishment of land with additional land investment where market conditions support it. Thirdly, we're paying a sustainable dividend well covered by profits. Today, we've declared an interim dividend at GBP 0.20, and we've set our annual capital returns at a minimum of GBP 0.60, which is currently all paid as dividends.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Fourthly, we think that in the medium term, as growth is delivered and remediation spend reduces, we will generate excess cash, and we retain the flexibility to deploy this excess cash depending on market conditions at the time by investing into more growth where returns are attractive, or into additional shareholder returns, or a combination of both. Those additional shareholder returns might be a share buyback rather than as dividend. We've delivered a strong first half performance in challenging market conditions with volume growth, profit growth, and disciplined investment. Assuming that conditions remain stable, our full year guidance is similar to what we have said previously.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We now expect to deliver growth in the full year to around 12,500 units. That's the top end of our previous guidance. Inflation, of course, remains embedded in build costs on older sites, and because average sites last for four or five years, this will continue to influence margins until those sites unwind from the portfolio. That cost pressure is now also affected by the Middle East conflict. As Dean will come to, we are taking action to mitigate that impact.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Assuming that we achieve our volume guidance, I expect underlying profit before tax to be in line with current expectations. I'm reiterating our previous guidance on net cash, which means that adjusted gearing at year-end could still be around 20%. The rest of the guidance on the slide is similar to what we gave in March. To summarize, Persimmon is growing volumes and profits. We're mitigating near-term margin headwinds. We're maintaining balance sheet discipline, we are investing in land that supports medium-term returns. Thank you. I'll hand back to Dean.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Thank you, Andrew. The financial performance Andrew has taken you through reinforces the core investment message. Growth is being delivered now. The drivers of future value creation are becoming increasingly visible. This slide brings our story together, it will show why we're confident in the medium-term growth opportunity for Persimmon. As you can see, our strategy is delivering growth with completions up 13% in the first half. Having significantly invested in our strategy over recent years, our focus is increasingly on converting those investments into improved returns. Our land and planning pipeline gives us visibility of outlet growth and margin improvement.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our three brands are giving us more routes to market and better use of land, thereby improving returns. Our quality and customer service improvements support sustainable sales momentum. Our vertical integration and innovation continues to give us a structural advantage on efficiency and cost control, again, underpinning margins. A carefully managed balance sheet enables this disciplined investment whilst also supporting returns to shareholders. Taken together, these five value drivers support our confidence in Persimmon's ability to grow volumes and improve both margins and returns.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our land investment and planning performance are clear examples of this platform delivering, so I'll turn to them now. Inevitably, market conditions have affected industry-wide land investment in the period. We've pursued attractive opportunities by focusing on value, cost discipline, and improved payment terms. The strength of our land position remains the most important driver of future growth. We continue to replenish and improve the quality of our pipeline, supporting our visibility of outlet growth and margins and capital returns for years ahead.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our strategy has been working as we've driven growth in both completions and outlets in recent years. When combined with our improving sales rates, this has helped us gain market share. Our expanding outlet network continues. We're on track to open 100 outlets this year, and we remain on course to achieve our short-term target of at least 300 outlets. Our planning performance continues to support this growth and improved outlet visibility.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

In the period, we secured detailed planning on 6,123 plots, 118% of completions, which is 21% more than last year. As the graph shows, detailed planning permissions have consistently outpaced completions over the last three years. Our strategic land bank remains a crucial asset because it provides optionality, supports future outlet growth, and typically delivers higher margins. I'm really pleased that we've added around 6,000 potential plots in the period right across the country.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

We've also strengthened our capabilities, including through the acquisition of the promoter Endurance Estates in June. Focused in the east of England, this complements our previous Lone Star acquisition. Including these two promoters, our strategic land bank has around 93,000 plots. I'll now turn to our three-brand strategy, which is an increasingly important driver of growth and resilience. I want to show how our three-brand strategy strengthens returns by giving us broader market reach, better use of land, and more resilience through the cycle. Each brand has a clear market position. Persimmon remains our core growth engine, efficient to build and affordable to own.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Charles Church gives us a premium proposition supporting margin expansion. Westbury adds a capital efficient route to driving volume and returns growth. These complementary market positions are translating into market share gains, with completions growing across all three brands. Persimmon is up 7%, Charles Church up 26%, and Westbury up 22% in the period. The key point is that this isn't just about having more brands. It's about using complementary brands to access more routes to market. Charles Church is building momentum through more operating and dual brand sites, while Westbury expands our reach into additional RP and BTR partnerships.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Collectively, the three brands increase land efficiency, broaden customer reach, improve sales resilience, and support stronger returns, which is why they're central to our medium-term ambitions for margin increase, ROCE improvement, and sustainable value creation. The same discipline applies to quality and service. As you'll see, sustained standards are essential to customer trust, pricing resilience, and the delivery of our growth ambitions. Quality and service are now firmly embedded in the group and have seen sustained improvement. We've made a commitment to this, and we've delivered.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

We maintained our five-star HBF rating for the fifth year running, and both Persimmon Homes and Charles Church remain rated excellent on Trustpilot at four point six stars. Our construction quality review score has improved further. As the slide shows, our Trustpilot CQR and reported item scores have all improved significantly over recent years. The really important point is that we are growing volumes while also maintaining high standards. We're investing to embed this further. The Charles Church Way and The Westbury Way have been developed to embed our excellence processes. They're tailored to the specific needs of the relevant segments and build on the clear success of The Persimmon Way.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Sales and customer care training, alongside frequent mystery shopping, is also driving up standards. Quality and service are central to the customer proposition, and as I have consistently said, they also support efficiency through build right first time, every time. That brings me to build efficiency. Vertical integration remains a key differentiator for Persimmon. As you can see from the chart, it supports our leading build cost efficiency, as highlighted in the recent Phoenix analysis. Our deepening vertical integration provides supply and margin resilience, all particularly important in the current market. In the H1, Brickworks delivered 31 million bricks, up 13% on the year.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Tileworks delivered 5.6 million tiles, and Space4 delivered a 30% increase in timber frame products, with roof truss delivery now commenced. We are prioritizing AI investment where it can make the biggest difference to operational efficiency and performance. Early areas of focus are land appraisal, a new CRM system, and commercial cost controls. Persimmon has always been an early adopter of innovation, and this is another example of that. Innovation and vertical integration are helping us build faster, improve consistency, reduce cost, and strengthen resilience.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

That combination is central to protecting margins while we grow volumes, and it provides a platform for sustained competitive advantage, as does, I believe, our self-help strategy. You'll be very familiar with the principal market challenges the industry is facing. I want to take you through how we're managing them proactively, taking very positive actions to protect margins and cash, and continue our growth. As ever, our self-help strategy. The first action is on cost inflation. As we've highlighted today, we estimate a cost wind of approximately GBP 40 million-GBP 50 million over the next 18 months, principally from the Middle East conflict.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

We're not standing still. We have comprehensive reviews underway across house types, procurement, overheads, value engineering, and build programs. We're leveraging our scale and vertical integration to offset these pressures wherever possible. We estimate we've already identified savings to mitigate at least half of the impact with further work ongoing. By 2028, we believe we can offset the costs, enhancing Persimmon's relative affordability and cost efficiency. Whilst mortgage affordability remains a challenge for some customers, demand for well-priced, high-quality homes remains resilient.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our affordable price points, sales and marketing investment, disciplined incentive use, and innovative first-time buyer support has helped drive demand. A 14% growth in first-time buyer sales in the period shows the strength of our approach. Our strong land position and nationwide footprint, diversified customer base through our three-brand strategy, and flexible operating model means we're able to respond nimbly to ongoing market constraints. Our strong forward order book is evidence of that, as is the fact we've delivered a 22% increase in completions and a 24% growth in underlying operating profit over the last three years.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our strategy is working. Maintaining our momentum in planning and outlet growth expands our nationwide platform. Our sustained planning approval success helps underpin future outlet growth, overcoming planning barriers. We've increased outlets by 6% over the last two and a half years against an industry-wide decline, and whilst we've been increasing completions. The strength of our land bank, strategic land holdings, and planning performance provides us with confidence in the long-term growth trajectory of the business.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Building safety remains a priority. As Andrew has shown, we've continued to make good progress, with the vast majority of known developments now tended and a significant proportion either on-site or completed. At the same time, we continue to pursue opportunities to recover costs. Finally, as we grow, maintaining quality and customer service standards is non-negotiable. The improvements we've made over recent years are now embedded within the business, and we remain committed to ensuring that growth, efficiency, and value creation are delivered without compromising customer experience.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Whilst these risks are real and require active management, we're responding to them from a position of strength. We have a strong balance sheet, a high-quality land pipeline, growing outlets, three complementary brands, and increasingly differentiated operational capabilities. Whilst external factors may influence the pace of progress from time to time, they do not change our confidence in the strategy or our medium-term ambitions of 20% operating margin and ROCE. Once again, Persimmon is recognizing a problem and proactively addressing it. Our self-help strategy positions us well to both mitigate risk and capture opportunities. This is reflected in our current trading position. Our total forward order book is strong at GBP 1.9 billion, up 3% by value.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our private sales rate, including bulk in the last five weeks, is up 6% to 0.72. Reflecting a slight softening in the market, the private sales rate excluding bulk over the last five weeks is down to 0.59. We've responded to this both through our recently launched summer marketing campaign and with an uptick in BTR sales. Taken together, this means our private forward order book is up 5% by value to GBP 1.3 billion. ASP in the private order book is up 3%. The private book is now around 8% sold for the year. Our affordable order book is GBP 600 million, fully secured for the year.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

This strong position means that assuming no material change in market conditions, we expect to deliver 12,500 homes this year. This is the top end of our previous guidance. Turning now to the conclusion. Today's results demonstrate that we're delivering growth in a challenging market while continuing to strengthen our differentiated platform, that's really encouraging. We've improved volumes, grown market share, and increased profit while continuing to invest in the foundations of future value creation.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Assuming no material changes to market conditions, we expect to deliver an underlying profit before tax in line with consensus. We're clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. Working through embedded land bank inflation, affordability pressures, industry cost inflation, and regulatory demands will continue to require disciplined management. As I've said, we're responding proactively and from a position of strength. Our sustained focus on self-help and medium-term strategic drivers of growth is delivering. Replenishing our land pipeline at higher margins, planning momentum, growing outlet base, three complementary brands, and differentiated vertical integration capabilities provide us with competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our efficiency program, including our review of house types, will help mitigate the current cost pressures as much as possible in the short term while extending our affordability and efficiency advantages in the medium term. While the pace of progress may vary, our direction of travel is unchanged. We remain focused on disciplined execution, sustainable growth, improving returns, and delivering on our medium-term ambition of 20% operating margin and ROCE.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our identifiable and improving operational drivers underpin our confidence. Better gross margins, increasing scale and faster asset turns, volume growth and overhead leverage, better sales mix, capital efficient growth, and vertical integration strengthening cost competitiveness. In short, we're managing today's risks, investing in tomorrow's growth platform, and remaining disciplined on returns. That combination underpins our confidence in creating a strong framework for medium-term value creation. You'll be pleased to hear that's the end of the formal script.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I thought before I hand over to Q&A, I'd just offer some of my unscripted personal reflections on the results for the half year. I'm really pleased we've contained 210 basis points of hit to gross margin caused by mix, incentives and build cost inflation to less than the impact of the HA mix because of operational leverage. Our strat land, coupled with our promoters, now stands at 93,000 high-quality plots. We explicitly acknowledge our cost hit from the Middle East in 2027, we're looking to solve it.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Our route to higher margins and returns isn't about improving market assumptions alone. It's a combination of outlet growth, stronger mix, planning conversions, capital efficiency, and structural cost advantages. All of which I believe we delivered on in H1. We cannot control the market, we can control the quality of the platform we're building, that gives us confidence in the direction of travel. I think we're delivering today as a result of the decisions we have taken in recent years. We're about self-help, not Help to Buy, I think the strategy is working. Thank you. At the front, please.

[Allison Sun, Analyst at Bank of America]

Thank you. Hi, morning. Allison from Bank of America. Just one question from my side. I think you mentioned there are some weaker inquiries in July and the sales rate softened a little bit. Is it mostly due to seasonality or something else? Should we be concerned about that? Thank you.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I think there's a combination of things going on in July, some of which, for us, are macro, some of which are a bit micro. Was it the heat? Was it the football? Is it mortgage rates? Was sentiment impacted by politics? I think maybe all of the above. The micro point for us is that we're in transition in outlets at the moment. If you sell at the pace we've been selling, inevitably some are closing and some are opening. That slows sales rates a bit. Look, I think the July slowdown was small. I don't think it's anything to get rattled about. As you can see from the results, actually, the private forward book is up at the end of it. I wouldn't read too much into it at this point in time.

[Zaim Beekawa, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Zaim Beekawa, JPMorgan. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three. The first is just on the build cost inflation expectations. I presume a lot of the price increases that have come through have been in the form of fuel surcharges. If we are to paint a bit of a more optimistic picture on the conflict, and that falls away, what do you think that number falls down to? Secondly, on AI, I think you mentioned the use cases there. Would you have a number in mind in terms of the financial impact you could see or expect to see? Thirdly, just on the Charles Church gross margins, I think we can see in appendix three it's come down about range of 340 basis points. Maybe just some explanation as to why that is. Thank you.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Okay, thank you. The action we're taking on embedded inflation, look, there is already a degree of embedded inflation in built stock, right? That is happening. That is coming through. As I said in the presentation, we're taking a lot of action to deal with it. If it all goes away, happy days, right? Because we're in the best possible place. I think necessity is the mother of all inventions, and it's caused us to take a really hard look at what we're doing. There's a lot of work going on, and I'm excited by the opportunity. My point about it being not as it currently stands, we don't know whether it's going to be fully offset with the work we're doing yet in 2027.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

The reason why we point to 2028 is because we're working on a new house type range for Persimmon, which is really driving optimal performance. Inevitably, that won't be fully implemented by next year because we've got to work it through the cycle, the planning cycle. I think there's opportunity there. Could it be beaten? Yes. You tell me whether the war's over or not. I think there's one man who certainly doesn't know. He's not sat on this side of the Atlantic. Look, we're recognizing it, and we're dealing with it. I think what it does do, because you're right, we are dealing with it like others, I think, as surcharges. We're just getting ahead of it. If and when it does fall away, I think we'll be in an even stronger position.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I think that's really important for our brands because it is so much about affordability at our price point. I don't see that changing anytime soon. Ultimately, in a perverse way, I think I can see Persimmon benefiting from this unforeseen set of consequences this year. I am quite excited by that. It's too early to call the AI impact yet. What I suppose I really do think, there's obviously the back office stuff that finance will be doing, but I think it will improve the quality of our performance, whether that's in production, in land buying, in marketing.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

There will be efficiencies there. I think we already employ some of those efficiencies, certainly on the marketing side. Can't quantify it yet, but as I said in my presentation, we do want to be leaders in that area. We do want to be early adopters. On Charles Church mix, it's mix, I wouldn't read too much into it. Also, look, it's a game of small numbers, isn't it? I just wouldn't read too much into it. The point remains it's a better margin than Persimmon. There was one at the front here. Thank you.

[Will Jones, Analyst at Rothschild & Co Redburn]

Thanks. Will Jones from Rothschild & Co Redburn. Three if I can, please. First, just around price. I think you mentioned incentives up 50 basis points year-over-year in the first half. Could you help us understand within the plus three of the private ASP in the order, but whether there's a net gain for overall pricing within that? Just your thoughts on how you might need to approach pricing into autumn, just as you see the market.

[Will Jones, Analyst at Rothschild & Co Redburn]

The second was just if you could help us understand overheads, maybe, I think even X, the land sale gains, they looked like they were down quite a bit year-over-year in H1. How should we think about the full year? You did, I think, reference the potential for overhead savings, and yet you're still looking to grow quite strongly. How we marry that up. Perhaps the last one for 2027, you have talked about, the potential for some margin pressure. Understandable, but can we still assume your base case would be for volume growth off this higher level that you exit 2026 with? Thanks.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Want me to say those?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Yes please.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Will, could you just repeat the third one again? Sorry, on the volume.

[Will Jones, Analyst at Rothschild & Co Redburn]

Volume thoughts for next year.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Thoughts for next year. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Okay, pricing incentives. Yes, look, in 2025, we saw a tick-up of incentives, as I said, it was 4.5% in the first half year, and I think we were up about 4.8% across the year as a whole. You can see that ticked up. We've seen that 5% come through in the first half. That is all reflected in the order book, though. The order book ASPs that you see there, that is net of incentives. You can see that we are seeing good, overall robust pricing, I think, across the piece. Incentives are an important part of the market at the moment.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

It's a market, as Dean said a few times, which is governed by affordability. It's a market where we're having to work to drive sales, and that's part and parcel. I don't think there's anything particularly unusual, particularly significant in that. In terms of overheads, you're right. Our admin costs have come down. If you're looking at on the face of the P&L, don't forget the prior year includes the exceptional costs and the CMA settlement. Even if you strip that out, just the underlying overheads have also come down by a couple of million pound in H1 compared to H1 last year.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We're very focused on keeping that as flat as we can, as we go through the full year compared to last year as well. I think it comes again back to the strategy of driving volume, but driving that operating leverage is a really important part of what we're trying to do. We haven't given volume guidance yet for 2027. It's a little bit early. We'll see how the market is and coming out off the summer. I suppose what I would say is, though, that our strategy is one of driving outlet growth, driving volume growth through the three brands, that is designed to drive the growth and that growth dropping through to profits and to returns. That is what we're focused on, but we haven't given any explicit guidance yet for 2027.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

We'll move over to that side in a moment.

[Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec]

Thanks. Aynsley Lammin from Investec. Just two from me, actually, on the land market. Just wondered if you could give us an update on how much easier the planning and land kind of side has become. Obviously, planning bill's been

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Old and deaf. What, can you repeat that?

[Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec]

On the planning, has it become easy? You've had the planning bill pass, local election's out the way. Just interested to hear your view on that side of things. Secondly, again, on the land market, are you more active? Have you increased your hurdle rates? Obviously, lots of peers have backed off in the land market. Just your view on that. Thanks.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

What we would say for sure is that what the government has done at national planning level is incredibly helpful. However, the system on the ground is still gummed up for a host of reasons. What I would say is I think that the penny has dropped in government, and that is a good thing. The creation of the accelerator sites now, looking at smaller sites, is going to help the whole industry. It's very much focused on the here and now. I think when the government, a few years back, embarked on this, it was much focused on thinking in terms of a 10-year horizon.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

They create policy now and would be happy that maybe in the next parliament it would deliver benefits in the next parliament. I don't think they think that now. As a result of that, the creation of these new task force, these focus groups on accelerator sites, I believe will begin to build momentum. It's quite amusing for us to watch, to be honest with you, because with MHCLG, really for the first time themselves having to deal with local planning committees, I think they're finding that a revelation. We can only gain from that experience. I think that's a good thing.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

As I said in my speech, inevitably the land market slowed, in the first half. We absolutely were focused on getting costs right, and where we bought, I believe we have. That's margin enhancing. We've been very disciplined. We've negotiated hard. Some we won, some we haven't won yet. Where we said no, we've seen some landowners say, "Well, goodbye." Or [Non-English content]. Some have said goodbye and come back the next day. Let's see. We will continue to engage in the land market. It is quiet, but there's still plenty of interesting opportunities out there. Shall we turn over to this side now?

[Charlie Campbell, Analyst at Stifel]

Thanks very much. Charlie Campbell at Stifel. Just a couple of questions. On the other income line, which is land sales, clearly a move half to half. Should we expect a move year-over-year as well, or not? Secondly, offsetting half the build cost inflation, how should we think of that splitting out between savings in costs of goods and overheads? Is that evenly split, or is it more on one than the other? Just to help us think about margin structure.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Want me to take those?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Yeah. On the other income line, yes, that increased GBP 10 million from GBP 6 million-GBP 16 million. I think last full year it was GBP 21 million-GBP 22 million total. I'd expect it to be in the GBP 20 million-GBP 30 million for the full year again. Yeah, I think we have the opportunity, because we've been active in the land market, to trade pieces of land where it's the right thing and it's the right deal to do. We've been doing that, and that's very helpful that we can do that. Ultimately, the numbers are not that significant to the overall result.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

In terms of the mitigations, I think it's probably a bit early to tell you exactly where they'll come. Clearly, there's a lot of it, Charlie, will come through gross margin, through the cost, whether that's around design, house types, specifications, and so on. Clearly, we're looking hard, though, as Dean said, across the whole business. Yeah, that's quite right. We should do. Yeah, we will see savings and efficiencies, I think, across the piece.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We'll come back with more detail on that later in the year and obviously with the full year when we've done that work. I think for me, the key thing, as Dean said, is almost irrespective of what happens to the inflation, these are the right things to do. Either they are helping to protect margin, or they help to give us opportunity if cost pressures reduce. These are good, no regrets actions that we'll be looking to take.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Glynis.

[Glynis Johnson, Analyst at Jefferies]

Thank you. Glynis Johnson, Jefferies. Four quite big picture ones, actually. Firstly, the new housing type. Can you give us any sort of granularity how much more profitable they could be? Or even just color, are they smaller? Are they more designed for what might be come in any future government program? Is it about the palette of raw materials? What makes them more profitable?

[Glynis Johnson, Analyst at Jefferies]

Second of all, you termed your 300 outlet count for next year as short term. What's the medium term? Question three, outgrowing the first time buyer market. It's quite a big percentage outperformance. Why? Are you underpricing? Threw that one in just to get you riled up and answering the question. Lastly, your very first slide said pro-housing government. Why do you view that to be the case at this point?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I'm not sure I caught all of your first question about house types. I'm not going to give you much away because you'll see it when it comes, and I'm certainly not telling the competition. I do think it will reinforce Persimmon's edge. I guess, I think also explains your third question on first-time buyers. I don't think we're underpricing. I think we have got a highly attractive position point in that market. You can see we're earning increased in ASPs, and we're commanding good margins. I don't think we are underpricing.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I think that it's a highly attractive proposition for a first-time buyer, and Persimmon has got that dead right. In terms of your second point, I'll answer that by saying, look, our target is probably in a couple of years to try and get to 300. That's where we're aiming for. As Andrew said to me the other day, that depends when you measure it, because we might hit it one day and the next day we've sold out on something else. There are multiple measurement points on outlets will determine all sorts of things. The trajectory of travel is up, and we'd like to get there within the space of a couple of years.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I think that answers the short-term question. I do believe, on the supply side, the government remains committed to its policy. We do, as I said earlier, see MHCLG continuing to drive the supply side and improving planning. With Matthew Pennycook now given a seat at cabinet, I think that reinforces that point of view. I guess what lies behind your question is what about the demand side? Who knows? We're not, as I said, focused on Help to Buy. We're focused on self-help. Shall we carry on?

[Sam Cullen, Analyst at Peel]

Yeah. Cheers. Sam Cullen from Peel. I've just got one. You mentioned when you talked about outlets earlier being in a bit of a transition year in terms of at the last stages of some, the very early stages of others. Can you give us an idea of what the distribution of that is currently and what kind of good looks like, i.e., what would a nirvana be in terms of where you are in the distribution of your outlets?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

I turned 60 a few weeks ago, and I realized I've never hit nirvana, so I guess this is it, isn't it? I don't know what nirvana is. When we get there, I'll tell you. What I can tell you is we opened 41 outlets so far this year, and we're on track to open at least another 60 in the second half. Look, with the best will in the world, you try and manage these things. It's market driven, and what sells and what doesn't sell, and you might think you know what's going to happen, and then you find out you don't.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

That inevitably creates peaks and troughs in when outlets open and close. Added to that, planning complexity. It's just the day-to-day grind of what we do. I do think that impacted us in July as we got to the tail end, because we sold out faster than we were expecting on some outlets, and some outlets were delayed as we were trying to get the 106 agreed or whatever. I don't think it alters at all our picture of long-term momentum.

[Chris Millington, Analyst at Deutsche]

Morning. Chris Millington at Deutsche. I just wanted to ask you a question about the 20% margin target. Is that purely about land bank evolution, or does it require volume growth, lower incentives? Do you want me to go one at a time?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Look, where are we on that target? Look, you're dead right, really implicitly from where we are. It's a big leap from where we are today. I totally recognize that. Indeed, we've been very transparent today about, we expect more cost inflation to come through tail end of this year and into next. I do think there's two aspects to this. I think the strategy we're delivering is working. It's delivering growth. I think Persimmon at 2,500 is delivering well below its optimum scale. I think operational leverage will continue to come through.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

You add to that getting your costs right in buying land. That will help the margin. As we grow the business, we drive Charles Church through our high margin. We drive capital returns in Westbury. We drive vertical integration. That will, in my view, we're confident in the long run, that will deliver. Will it deliver tomorrow? Will we get blown off course by something else that, you know, Agent Orange or somebody else does?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Yeah, probably. I think what's really key, and I think you see this in our results, because this is the second side of what I was trying to address here, which is I do think that nevertheless, what we've done, and you see it from our results in the first half, we've got the benefit of 200 basis points of overhead leverage coming through. It's giving us resilience even in a really challenging market. I think might events delay the end destination? Yeah, probably will. Will it, though, what we're doing give us an opportunity to outperform the market? Yes, it does. I think it's right for us to set the strategy, and it's right for us to set those targets. Andrew and I are confident that we will get there.

[Chris Millington, Analyst at Deutsche]

Thank you for that. Quick checking question. The 27% site gross margin, how can we look at that relative to the report? You may have mentioned this before, but can you just bridge that for us?

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We have some of the costs of our commercial teams and some of the customer care costs and so on that we sit below the site margin. You can see as we get towards the 20% target, I would expect us to be at an overhead leverage of overheads at the sort of four percentage, the gap from embedded margin to statutory gross margin to be another four percentage, something like that.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

That embedded gross margin, as I said in the presentation, has come off a little bit because we factored in the additional build costs. Of course, actually what we're now looking to do is to find ways to mitigate those and drive those through. Of course, importantly as well, it's also dragged by some of the sites that have been in there since pre-2024, so sites that were hit by the inflation in 2022 and 2023, which again, we're trading our way through.

[Chris Millington, Analyst at Deutsche]

Sorry, the last one. You mentioned about pricing differentials in the north versus the south. Are you seeing a big difference in sales rates as well, or does the affordable product keep that a little bit more consistent?

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

It is selling slightly faster up north, clearly. Also, there is an affordability element of that, for sure. I think there's also a capital allocation decision that we've made internally. Persimmon has always been slightly biased to the north, but investment in recent years has driven us to do even more of that. I think that has also impacted and is impacting our performance.

[Chris Millington, Analyst at Deutsche]

Thanks you

[Peter Ajose-Adeogun, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Morning. Peter Ajose-Adeogun at Morgan Stanley. Two questions for me. First one is just around 2026 volumes. With 80% of private completions now secured and I think you said all of HA, do you see at all any execution risk for 2026 in H2 just around build, mortgage availability, cancellations, or quite confident on that? Second, just on, you mentioned on capital returns, you said surplus cash could potentially be deployed maybe via buybacks. What balance sheet or cash conversion threshold would make buybacks more likely? Thank you.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

I'll pick those up. Look, on the 2026 volume, we're confident in the 12,500. That's why we've given that guidance and that improved guidance today. Of course, there is always execution risk until you've finished. Whether if the market changed or if there's always execution risk on finalizing build. Of course, there is work to be done. But we are confident in that number. And you can see both, as you just called out, from that sales perspective, we are well covered on the private side, fully covered on the HA side. Our build is ahead of last year's delivery at build at this stage of last year.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

We're in a good place. We're driving it hard, but I'm afraid there is always some execution risk until you get to the end of the year. Of course, there is. We're confident in that number, Peter, which is why we've given it. In terms of capital returns, what I've tried to do, as I said to you, is to articulate that we keep that flexibility in looking at the market at the time in terms of where we are.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Even, obviously today we're trading above net assets, not by much, I'm the first to admit, but we need to look at it in the context of the share register, in the context of where we are in terms of share price and returns and see what is best value. We will look at that as we go forward. What I wanted to do is to be very clear that we are flexible in the way that we will look at that as we go forwards.

[Peter Ajose-Adeogun, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thank you.

[Adrian Kearsey, Analyst at Panmure Liberum]

Morning. Adrian Kearsey, Panmure Liberum. Just one question for me. On slide nine, on the bottom right-hand side, you show the embedded margin across the owned sites, putting them into the four different buckets. How quickly do you think you'll work through the majority of the lower margin buckets?

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Some of the sites in the low margin are large sites, they will take time. I think our average site size, Adrian, is around 170, 180 units. It's been steady on that for a while. Of course, within that, there is a tail of quite long sites. That will take time. I think what we said in March, which is still the case, is that half of our delivery in 2027 will be on those sites that were acquired pre-2023. That is still a big feature of 2026 delivery and 2027 delivery. Then it starts to unwind. There will be a tail there, which is a longer tail, which goes beyond.

[Rebecca Parker, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Hi. Rebecca Parker from Goldman Sachs. Just two from me. You've made it quite clear that you're focusing on self-help, but there has been, I guess, speculation around the potential for Help to Buy under the new prime minister. Just wondering if you've had any discussions with government and what format you think a Help to Buy scheme could come in.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

Look, I'll just reiterate what I said, which is we are focused on self-help. Clearly, if Help to Buy or some sort of first-time buyer support were to come in, that would be helpful. Certainly, I think MHCLG are very actively looking at options at the moment. It's just too soon to say whether Treasury is in favor or not. I can't give you any color on that.

[Rebecca Parker, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Sure. Just on the levers for your net cash target, what would move you towards the top and bottom end of that range? Just any moving parts there.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

Broadly speaking, we will deliver in the second half of the year 1,500 more units than we delivered in the first half. That gives me, round numbers, Rebecca, GBP 400 million of additional revenue. My build and the land spend is broadly flat. I'll spend GBP 300 million on dividends in the second half. You can see that it's that additional volume, because we're H2 weighted, will drive the cash generation. Of course, within the range, it depends on where we are on land spend. It depends where we are on forward build. It depends exactly where we are on revenue mix. It's all those things which then within the range will determine where we get to.

[Rebecca Parker, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Thanks. One more. You mentioned some potential restructuring costs with the cost out program. Just wondering if you can provide any more color on those.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

What we've tried to do on the cost piece is be very clear around the breadth of the work that we are doing to look to how we can mitigate the cost pressures that are coming to the business. That is a full sail look across how we do things across the piece. The reason I put that line into my financial report was just to say, look, as we go through that program, if there is some restructuring, then we will face into that and deal with it.

[Andrew Duxbury, CFO at Persimmon]

There might not be. That work is ongoing. We are in the middle of that at the moment, and we will see where that gets to. I wanted to be, I guess, open and clear that there could be something come the end of the year, but there might not be as well. We'll work through the exercise, and we'll see what comes through.

[Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive at Persimmon]

No more questions? Okay. Thank you very much. I suppose just some summary points from me. Very quickly, I think the decisions that we've taken is delivering growth now and does give us confidence for the future. We recognize it's very challenging out there, and we're clear-eyed about it. However, we are addressing it, and the work we're doing can only help us in the longer term. As a team, we remain absolutely committed to driving growth and to delivering that 2020 vision. Thank you very much

Participants

Executives

• Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive
• Andrew Duxbury, CFO

Analysts

• Allison Sun, Analyst at Bank of America
• Zaim Beekawa, Analyst at JPMorgan
• Will Jones, Analyst at Rothschild & Co Redburn
• Aynsley Lammin, Analyst at Investec
• Charlie Campbell, Analyst at Stifel
• Glynis Johnson, Analyst at Jefferies
• Sam Cullen, Analyst at Peel
• Chris Millington, Analyst at Deutsche
• Peter Ajose-Adeogun, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Adrian Kearsey, Analyst at Panmure Liberum
• Rebecca Parker, Analyst at Goldman Sachs