Its financial results for 2015 showed that full year revenue at the group was up by 13% to £2.9bn, while legal completions rose by 8% to 14,572.
Persimmon’s average selling price last year also climbed to £199,127, rising by 4.5% on 2014 when it stood at £190,533.
The housebuilder’s bumper results follow Bovis Home’s announcement on its record profits of £160.1m for 2015.
Forward sales for 2016 at Persimmon are currently £1.68bn, 12% up on 2015.
Nicholas Wrigley, group chairman, said performance was significantly ahead of original expectations as Persimmon completed its fourth year of the group’s nine and half year strategic plan.
“It is now four years since we launched our long-term strategy focused on growing Persimmon into a stronger, larger business while maintaining capital discipline and delivering robust free cash generation. The Group’s ability to grow completion volumes by more than 55% through this period while simultaneously returning £733m of excess capital to shareholders underlines the strength of its operating model,” he said.
“Customer activity in the early weeks of the 2016 spring season has been encouraging and today’s further £860m enhancement to the Capital Return Plan to a total of £9.00 per share is a measure of the Board’s confidence in the Group’s future progress.”
