Persimmon Plc

Persimmon Plc

15.30
EUR
+0.24
(+1.59%)
3.97BMarket Cap
Mar 03Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptJanuary 13, 2026

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Persimmon Plc trading update conference call.

At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be the question and answer session.

To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

To withdraw a question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Dean Finch, CEO. Please go ahead.

Dean Finch

Good morning, and thank you for joining Andrew and I today. As usual, I'll say a few words by way of overview, and then hand over for the Q&A.

As you can see from our statement, we have delivered a strong end to the year with 12% growth in completions. This means that we expect to be reporting an underlying profit before tax at the upper end of expectations, this also being double-digit growth, as well as growth in margins.

We believe that this organic growth in completions is one of our strongest on record. I would like to thank my brilliant colleagues at Persimmon, as well as our supportive subcontractor base and supply chain for this fantastic result.

Our people went above and beyond in the final quarter of last year, and I want to place on the record my grateful appreciation of this. This growth in completions is made up of 30% growth in affordable, 20% growth in PRS, and 6% growth in private, with the private growth largely driven by growth in outlets.

We also saw 5% growth in private ASP, and 4% growth in affordable ASP, giving us a blended growth in ASP overall of 4%. We also made good progress in opening outlets over the year, ending at 277.

Forward sales are up in value terms by 2%, with the value of private forward sales up by 4%, but the value of PRS forward sales down as we saw a quieter Q4, clearly impacted by budget uncertainties. As we look ahead to 2026, whilst we are only a few days into the new year, we expect, other things being equal, another year of growth as a result of another year of growth in outlet numbers.

Albeit, we expect the overall level of growth to pair back from what we have just delivered, as a result of slower growth in affordable and PRS sales. We have an excellent pipeline of land opportunities ahead of us that will convert into growing outlet numbers towards the end of 2026 and into 2027.

Obviously, we should be carrying the cost of opening these outlets, and the finance costs of buying the land and progressing the WIP in 2026. Taking all this together at this stage means that we expect, other things being equal, that 2026 will be another year of good profit growth, but that profit will lie in the current consensus range.

We also update on cladding. During the year, we were notified of three more buildings that require remediation.

We'll need to make a modest adjustment to the provision accordingly. Overall, we expect the provision at the end of 2025 will be less than at the start of the year.

To give some reassurance, we are now completed, contracted, or have an agreed tender price for 90% of known developments. In conclusion, we do have some headwinds in 2026.

Landfill tax comes in from April, and that sees our cash cost rise this year from £10 million to £20 million. Thereafter, unmitigated, it continues to rise.

Just to remind you, we think it goes from £4 a ton to £25 a ton by the end of the decade. Of course, the building safety levy comes in from October.

Overall, I think the business is in great shape. As I've just said on remediation, we have 90% of known buildings completed, contracted, or costs agreed.

We have a fantastic pipeline of land opportunities that will convert into outlets towards the end of 2026 and into 2027. We have a great range of products from the affordable end right the way through to Charles Church, but throughout we design our build to keep our costs low, giving us more routes to market, which I think is incredibly important in this environment.

All our house types are supported both by NewBuild Boost and Reside, and of course by our brick and tile and timber frame factories. Finally, I am supported by a fantastic team of individuals at Persimmon.

We are looking forward to another year of solid growth in profit. With that, thank you for listening to me.

I'll turn it over to Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced.

To withdraw a question, please press star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

This will take a few moments. Now we are going to take our first question.

Just give us a moment. It comes from the line of Aynsley Lammin from Investec.

Your line is open, please ask your question.

Aynsley Lammin

Thanks very much. Happy New Year, everybody.

Just two questions from me, please. You kind of alluded to the fact that site openings would be more end of this year into '27.

Just wondered how you see kind of obviously Planning and Infrastructure Bill was passed just before Christmas. Do you think that has a meaningful impact?

Will you start to see that this year? Just a bit more color, I guess, around the planning backdrop, how easy that might become from here?

Then secondly, on the completions, I think you'd kind of given a guidance target of around 12,000 for FY '26. Is that still in place?

Obviously, you had a good end to the year. Affordable was very high.

Does that kind of bring forward some of those completions, and therefore, 12,000 is still what you're saying for FY '26 at this stage? Thanks.

Dean Finch

Morning, Aynsley. Aynsley, Happy New Year to you, too.

Maybe if I start with planning, and then I'll ask Andrew to pick up on guidance for '26. I think the government policy and progress thereof and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is enormously welcome, and is probably the most positive development that we've seen I haven't had the benefit of a long career in house building, but all my colleagues are telling me, best environment they have seen probably all of their working careers.

However, my word of caution around it is that whilst I think that it is incredibly positive and I'm hugely grateful to the government, policy as ever takes some years to break through and cut through on the ground. I think that remains the case.

Whilst we've had really good progress in developing our land opportunities into outlets, it's really hard work still. That's because beyond the policy framework, it's the detail on the ground.

If, for instance, you take an example of ours up in the Northeast, we've had the ticket for two years for a particular site, but the drainage consultants can't agree, we can't get the discharge conditions. Also in the Northeast, we've got a site where not quite two years, but nearly, I've got highways consultants that are arguing the toss, and we can't get on site.

In Kent, we have two local authorities who are preventing us from signing the Section 106, even though we were ready to go over a year ago, because they can't agree on the division of the education contributions. In Wales, Wales have just discovered nutrients, and so that is also giving us a problem.

Am I frustrated? Enormously so.

What we need to see is cut through from the great, but very lofty, policy statements and ambitions to cut through. It's the government needs to focus on delivery in this Parliament.

Their policy is going to enable them to deliver into the next Parliament. We need to live for the here and now.

I'm hugely grateful and welcoming of the progress that's being made in planning, but I'd like to see some real cut through on the ground and get us moving. Hand over to you, Andrew, now I've served up my sermon on planning to consensus.

Andrew Duxbury

Morning, Aynsley. Just briefly on consensus volumes, so as you say, we previously guided to 12,000 and are comfortable at this stage, early weeks into the year.

That's still where we're at. Just to put a little bit of color on it, and we can talk more in March, obviously, we did have a very strong end to 2025, particularly you can see on the affordable delivery.

You can only deliver those units once. We delivered strongly there, and we know that the affordable market is still challenging.

As Dean mentioned in his opening remarks, the order book is a little bit lighter on the bulk sales than it was this time last year. Hopefully that market will come back post-budget, but it will mean that we're just a little bit behind the curve compared to where we might have been otherwise.

Given those two things, I think volume growth then starts to be driven again by outlet growth in the business. As we said, we will be growing outlets this year, but probably more towards the latter half of the year rather than the start.

Putting all of that together, I think I'm comfortable with where the number is for now. Obviously when we come out in March, we'll give a bit more color on the trading in the opening few weeks and see what that means.

Aynsley Lammin

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

Just give us a moment. The question comes from the line of Will Jones from Rothschild and Redburn.

Your line is open, please ask your question.

Will Jones

Thanks. Morning.

Three if I can, please. The first, just around the Boxing Day campaign, where you talked about encouraging signs, just I guess any further color around that in terms of how it's translating through to website hits, I guess, at this stage and maybe inquiries as we go forward.

Second, maybe just on pricing. I think you talk about similar incentives, I assume that it's not a huge amount new to say around pricing.

The growth in the order book is quite good, but, again, perhaps influenced by bulk and other mix. Any thoughts on underlying pricing net-net would be great.

Then just the couple of taxation points you raise around landfill and Building Safety Levy, any thoughts you've got on potential mitigation measures? Landfill, potentially delaying the impact of the Building Safety Levy by getting your controls through early.

Just in that backdrop, whether you still think there's scope to kind of nudge ahead the margin potentially in '26? Thanks.

Andrew Duxbury

Thanks, Will. Morning.

Let me pick those up. Yes, in terms of Boxing Day, and I guess it's encouraging.

Website visitors have been good, higher this year than last year. I guess my caveat on that, of course, it's a single data point and it's very hard to take a trend from a single data point, Will.

We have to see how that manifests itself, how that runs through as we go forward. Certainly in terms of website traffic off the back of the Boxing Day campaign has been very good.

Pricing, you're saying incentives. Incentives stayed at about 4% 5% probably the last 18 months, actually, since I've been in the business, been similar.

We have probably had slightly more robust pricing certainly, I think, in the North Midlands, and so on, further away from the Southeast. You are right that the ASP growth in the order book is not illustrative of what I see ASP growth going into 2026 will be.

That's really about the mix in the order book. As you say, there's more open market sales in there.

There are fewer bulk sales, and so on. There is a mix effect in the order book.

I wouldn't try to read too much into the 6% uplift, albeit it is good that pricing, yeah, I think, has been pretty robust through '24, 2025. Then just on the two tax points, you're right.

Landfill tax, as well as doubling, obviously, they introduced that that increases a year earlier than they were originally consulting on. Of course, that limits the immediate chance to mitigate.

The most obvious mitigation would have been to try to do some of that groundwork before the tax increase. Of course, that opportunity is reduced by time.

We've only got three months to do that. Clearly, we are looking at design of sites to see where we can mitigate in terms of reducing taking spoil away to landfill.

That's clearly the most obvious case. We've just signed an agreement externally to help with a third party to help us manage our soil and landfill as well.

We are looking to mitigate that. Clearly as we grow outlets, as we open new outlets, a lot of the infrastructure work is done early, and that will be subject to the new taxes if we can't find alternative ways to deal with the spoil.

Then on Building Safety Levy, I think you covered off the key point, which is actually getting our starts on site and our building controls signed off and agreed early is clearly what we'll be looking to do to try to make sure that where we can, we can mitigate Building Safety Levy, to the extent that's not already been factored into the land acquisitions, of course. There's a timing opportunity there for us to work that through.

Will Jones

Thank you. The overall view on margin possibilities in '26, still as you were before?

Andrew Duxbury

What we said was that we saw the margin progression in '26 to be at a similar rate of progression as we have seen in '25. I think that's probably still the case, Will, because there are some of those headwinds.

As we talked about in the summer, that embedded inflation from 2022 and 2023 takes time to work its way through the system absent any significant house price inflation to offset it.

Will Jones

Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

It comes from the line of Zayn Bikawi from JP Morgan. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Zaim Beekawa

Morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and Happy New Year.

The first is just on the PRS, sort of any expectations to when you think this will come back post-budget, and does it still remain sort of a core part of your strategy there or still part of a key strategic market? Then, secondly, on the fire safety, kind of just maybe an updated view on when you maybe finished with these and how that will inform your approach to capital allocation?

Thank you.

Andrew Duxbury

Okay. Morning, Zayn.

Let me take those. First on PRS, we saw and there's some specific examples that we had deals which were almost ready to agree, which were then paused in the run-up to the budget.

Those customers, those investors, obviously, are very alive to things like gilt rates, and clearly, all of the speculation in advance of the budget, that was weighing heavily. I'd like to think that market will come back.

It's still an important market for us. We still think, strategically, it's important.

As Dean mentioned in his opening comments, what we're trying to do is to sell into different markets to give ourselves maximum opportunities, whether that's Charles Church, whether it's core Persimmon, whether it's build-to-rent. It's a key part of the strategy still, and I think hopefully we'll see some progress there in the first half year.

Obviously, post-budget, you were straight into the Christmas run-in, it was a little bit too short a period to really see that come back in December. I'd like to think that market will come back and stays important for us.

In terms of fire safety, Dean Dean talked to that. It's a small adjustment.

We've always said that the important thing is that we are on the front foot. We're dealing with the fire remediation work.

We've always said that the provision will come down. It might come down a little bit lumpy as it comes, because these are complicated projects as we work forward.

We still are looking to do the bulk of that work this year and next year. Of course, there'll be a long tail, but that tail will be kind of business as usual, if you like, in terms of quantum.

This year and next year are still the key areas or the key time for getting through the bulk of that work.

Zaim Beekawa

Impact on dividend.

Andrew Duxbury

Oh, sorry, Zayn, just to pick up in terms of impact on capital allocation. We said in the summer that what we wanted to do was to see our way towards the end of that work, we don't have to be finished, full stop, but we want to be closer to the endpoint.

I still think that's the case. As we get through '26 and into '27, that gives us opportunity to update on the capital allocation policy.

Zaim Beekawa

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

It comes from the line of Ami Galla from Goldman Sachs, your line is open -- my apologies, Ami Galla from Citi, my apologies. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Ami Galla

Thanks. Two questions from me, as well.

The first one was just a follow-up on the ASP point. You've seen a significant positive mix effect on the affordable ASP in '25.

Do we expect that to reverse? The second question, on build cost inflation, we are targeting a similar level in '26.

The first one is could you update us what the '25 build cost inflation eventually stacked up to be, and into '26, where are the pressures on build cost really coming from?

Andrew Duxbury

Okay. Good morning, Amy.

Let me pick those up. In terms of the ASP, you're right, there was some mix effect.

Actually, what we saw in delivery in 2025, we saw ASP growth across Persimmon and the Charles Church and affordable. I think in terms of the affordable, of course, it's always linked to the geography, because, as you would expect.

I think in terms of what are we seeing in terms of underlying ASP growth, I think we see it, as I said earlier, pricing is robust around the country. It's more of an acute issue in the South and Southeast because headline prices are higher, and therefore, affordability is more of a challenge more broadly for our customers.

I think we saw some good ASP growth overall, 4% up year-on-year, and you'd like to think that ASP growth will continue, but I wouldn't expect it to be at the level that we see in the forward order book, because that is driven by mix effect. It would be driven by mix and by geography again as we go into 2026.

On build cost inflation, we talked all the way through '25 of low-single digits, kind of in that sort of 2% to 4% inflation. I don't really see any reason why that will be different as we go into 2026.

Where the pressure and that sort of level of inflation really will be across materials, it'll be across the supply chain, as well. If you like, that's relatively normalized levels of inflation.

The key thing, I think, just to remember, it goes back to the margin progression point that I made to Will, is, of course, that's build cost inflation on already elevated build costs. It's not a question of costs coming down, it's a question of costs going up, but at probably a similar level to 2025.

Ami Galla

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to proceed with our next question.

Just give us a moment. The question comes from the line of Glynis Johnson from Jefferies.

Your line is open, please ask your question.

Glynis Johnson

Good morning. I'm going to go with three as well, if I may.

The first one is just a clarification in terms of the outlet count. You talk about growth towards the end of 2026, but should we be anticipating that outlets might dip a little bit through the middle of the year and then pick up, or is it just going to be steady and then climbing?

The second one just in terms of Charles Church. Can you just give us a little update in terms of how Charles Church did for the 2025 as a whole, and what we should maybe be thinking about for 2026, just in terms of proportion of completions?

Then lastly, just in terms of some of the measures you referenced them earlier, Reside, if you can just talk through the measures, what the uptake's been, whether or not they're making any kind of difference to your sales rate?

Andrew Duxbury

Morning, Glynis. Let me pick those up.

In terms of the outlet count, I would expect it to be through the year relatively steady. The tick-up will be towards the back end, as Dean mentioned.

Of course, it's always, if we sell faster, then we will, then we have them falling off the belt a little bit quicker, and sometimes we see that at the end of the first half year. Generally speaking, I think it will be it will be relatively steady, but then, and then that push up in the in the towards the latter part, which is will then drive additional growth, hopefully, into into 2027.

I wouldn't be necessarily modeling for a dip in in outlets. As I say, as as you as your sales rates pick up, there's always there is always that there's always a chance that you end up with some falling off the belt a little bit earlier than you expected.

Charles Church, really pleased with the progress. We relaunched it in March of 2025, as as and that was a, in terms of the product, in terms of specification, in terms of the branding, the route to market.

That's done really well, the volume growth in Charles Church was was strong in 2025. We had the volume growth in Charles Church outstripped the volume growth in Persimmon, but really importantly, both products grew, it's not that we're growing Charles Church at the expense of Persimmon.

They both they both grew, and the Charles Church had a slight tick-up, therefore, in terms of its its relative share compared to 2024. That's good, because what we've said is that we want to in 2024, Charles Church was just shy of 1,000 units.

We're looking to get that to 2,000 over the next two or three years, we'd expect that growth in Charles Church to be quicker and and to continue to grow faster in 2026. Really pleased with how that that relaunch has gone.

Again, in the current market, I think having more strings to our bow, more routes to market, more routes to different customers, has proved really beneficial. Then similarly, as well as looking at Charles Church at one end of the market, obviously, we've also launched NewBuild Boost and Reside in terms of, again, it's about trying to bring people to site and and offer something different to to different customers.

Reside, very little impact in 2025. We only launched it in in Q4, you wouldn't expect significant impact.

NewBuild Boost, we launched, I think, in Q2. That has had some impact in terms of driving people to site.

Interestingly, quite a lot of people who've come in and qualified on NewBuild Boost have ultimately then reserved on traditional products. It's has driven footfall and driven regular sales as well as NewBuild Boost sales.

I think neither of the products are, if you like, transformational, but they are both incrementally helpful in driving people to site and therefore driving additional sales.

Glynis Johnson

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question, and it comes from the line of Charlie Campbell from Stifel.

Your line is open, please ask your question.

Charlie Campbell

Good morning. Happy New Year to you.

Just a couple from me, really. One was on mortgages, and just wondering if there's anything to say on mortgage availability.

Quite a bit of noise around that, but wondering if you've seen any changes on the ground or else if people are telling you to expect changes in this year ahead. Then secondly, on affordable, just so I can sort of understand the path of that a bit.

Should we expect a lower percentage of affordable in '26? Also just on the timing, just wondering when the sort of Affordable Homes Programme money start to kind of kick in.

I understand people have got to apply by February, but just understand kind of when you would expect housing associations to have more appetite for buying affordable housing with those funds. Thank you.

Andrew Duxbury

Morning, Charlie. Let me just pick those up.

In terms of mortgage availability, the mortgage market, look, helpful that interest rates are lowering, that's obviously useful. It's helpful that there was some additional or higher loan-to-salary kind of mortgages coming out towards the end of last year, lower deposits.

Incrementally, I think the mortgage market was probably more helpful at the end of '25 than it was at the start, but I think it's, again, incrementally helpful as opposed to being transformative. Certainly, affordability and access to a mortgage or to a sufficient mortgage remains a key constraint for many of our customers.

I think there have been some helpful signs, but they're certainly not transformative, if you like. That's why the industry, of course, has been calling for something similar to a Help to Buy for exactly that reason.

What we've been doing with NewBuild Boost, with Reside, with Charles Church, is not waiting for those kind of policy interventions. We've been trying to get after the market.

I think mortgage availability and affordability more generally for our customers remains a key issue going into 2026. In terms of the affordable percentage, it was a little bit higher in 2025.

Obviously, that's where we saw a significant growth, 30% growth in affordable units in 2025. Clearly, I wouldn't expect 30% growth year-on-year.

There is a likelihood that that percentage will come back a little bit in 2026. I think we were about 17% of total volume was affordable in 2025.

Typically, I think it's probably somewhere in that 15% to 18% range, something like that. It might be a little bit shy or a little bit lower percentage in 2026.

Then in terms of the new funding, what we see is there are continue to be funding challenges for our housing association partners. Clearly, they have a lot of pressures on their businesses.

I'm not sure that that the new money, which is likely to come in imminently, in terms of those settlements, including the £39 billion the government talks about, is separate to the Section 106 as well. This is about really for us the Section 106 funding.

Dean Finch

Just if I may come in there, I was talking to the chief exec of Homes England yesterday. I suppose the point impressed on me yesterday is the government desire to press on with the program is clearly strongly there.

I think them getting organized to move into delivery is more towards the end of the year, rather than being materially helpful to this year. There is that pipeline of money there, and it will step up.

I think I'd be expecting more that impacting '27 than '26, just from what the chief exec was saying to me yesterday.

Operator

Excuse me, Charlie. Any further questions?

Charlie Campbell

No, no. Sorry, I was just saying thank you.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

It comes from the line of Chris Millington from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Chris Millington

Hi, morning, everyone. A few quick ones from me.

Apologies, I joined a couple of minutes late, I don't know if you touched on this, but I'd love your thoughts around the potential for any government support, whether there's any conversations you're having there. There seems to be a little bit of conversation about it in the sector.

Next one, just love to know the key moving parts on net cash for '26, is there any danger you move into small net debt, not that I see that as a big issue? Then I'd just love a little bit of detail around why these buildings have kind of come out of the woodwork with regard to fire safety.

I know everyone's had additions, but just some of the detail behind yours, because I did feel you were a little bit further through your progress than, well, you are further through the progress than peers, but I'd love a bit more detail on that, if possible.

Dean Finch

Morning, Chris. Again, based on my conversation from yesterday, what I would say is that it's firmly off the agenda at the moment.

Will it be firmly off the agenda after May, and will there be opportunities looked at from a stimulus perspective later in the year? I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

It is clearly being actively discussed. Treasury do regard this as inflationary, and I think it is the job of us as developers, it's the job of MHCLG, it's the job of Homes England to persuade the Treasury that in the context overall that the inflationary element, frankly, isn't a big deal.

I can just about see how it can be inflationary, but I think it's pretty marginal. Don't hold your breath for now, but would I rule it out?

No, definitely not. Is it core to our strategy?

Absolutely not. If it comes, it will be a benefit to our strategy.

If it doesn't, we can happily cope without it, as our strong performance in 2025 demonstrates. I'd also pick up on fire safety.

Yep, it's a bummer, isn't it? Unfortunately, I'm afraid.

Why is that? Because the tail is very long.

It's 30 years. That's the contract we all signed up to.

It's incredible that these buildings are still popping out at us. It's frustrating, but there you have it.

It is, and we're dealing with it. We're in a really good shape.

You perhaps didn't hear me say this at the start, but I'll repeat it again. Everybody else will be tired of me saying it, but in terms of our known buildings, we are 90% either complete, contracted, or agreed price, at least that variable of escalating costs is being controlled.

The other progress we made in Q3 and Q4 last year is that we've begun to achieve recoveries, which is really good news. High time.

I think it is high time, as David said in the article in The Times this morning, the whole burden of this has fallen on the developers. It needs to be expanded to the supply chain.

Certainly, we are rigorously going after recoveries, and that will assist. Can I rule out and guarantee to investors there will be no new buildings pop out at me in 2026 that I had no idea we ever built?

No. Do I think that it is manageable, is a direction of travel down, will we be out of the bulk of this in '26 and '27?

Absolutely, I do, and that will enable us to look at our capital allocation. The adjustment we're proposing for this period has obviously got to be approved by the board, got to go through audit committee, but I think in the context of everything it's pretty modest.

Unfortunately, Chris, I think it's a fact of life. There will be bumps on the road.

We never promised it would be linear, but year-on-year, the provision is coming down. Good

Andrew Duxbury

morning, Chris. I'll just pick up on the net cash for 2026.

The reality is we'll give full guidance on it when we come out in March, Chris. The point I would make, and, again, apologies, I don't know when you joined the call, but obviously we are looking to grow outlets again in 2026.

Growing outlets does take cash, because you have to invest in the outlets, in infrastructure, and getting the site set up and open. There is a upfront cash requirement to do that.

We've obviously been active in the land market as well. There is investment that we're making quite deliberately so and quite rightly so, but we'll give some more guidance on where we then expect our 2026 cash to be when we come out in March.

Chris Millington

Helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

Just give us a moment. The question comes from the line of Rebecca Parker from Goldman Sachs.

Your line is open, please ask your question.

Rebecca Parker

Hi, thanks. Just one for me on the land market.

Just wondering if you could provide some color on land opportunities and where you're seeing there, maybe the pricing in the market at the moment. Thanks.

Dean Finch

We are seeing more opportunity than we can cope with at the moment. I was glad of Christmas break, to be honest, in case there was another land committee inserted into it somewhere.

Look, it was extraordinary last year for us. It certainly escalated towards the end.

I think there's a combination of things going on there. I think certainly the other thing that's happening, as well as the sort of real dynamics of the market, obviously, we've got cash, but I think as well we're becoming a much better partner to do business with.

People who would never have spoken to Persimmon when I first joined five years ago now do speak to us. They do pick up the phone to me and others in the business, and the land promoters come and knock on our door.

I think as well as us being in a position to participate in the land market through the rehabilitation of the brand and the efforts of our people to demonstrate the improvement in customer service and build quality, and actually the design improvement of our developments is stepping up. A key thing for landowners is they want to feel proud of if they're selling a piece of land, which can be a big thing, a big legacy in the community, they want to be proud of the development that they're leaving after them.

That's been a big turnaround for us and demonstrating that and burnishing our credentials. The dynamics of it for us are very good.

We can afford to be selective, but we're always keen and eager and grateful for a new opportunity.

Rebecca Parker

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our final question for today.

It comes from the line of Clyde Lewis from Peel Hunt. Your line is open, please ask your question.

Clyde Lewis

Morning, all. I think the words have cut through, I'm afraid.

Probably one going back on the cash and sort of talking about or thinking about build rates for '26. As you sit here today, are you sort of thinking about changing, I suppose, the pace of build versus the pace of sales, or are you very happy with how that was going last year?

That was the first one. I suppose attached to that, when you sort of look ahead, you look at labor availability and I suppose the overhead structure of the business, how easy would it be for the group to respond and deliver a 10% or 15% increase in volumes if a new mechanism from the government was announced or if we did see an improvement in mortgage rates and demand profile?

Dean Finch

I suppose we're positioning ourselves to do exactly that should that happen. Timber frame being rolled out across the business, and we're getting used to it.

We'll probably be putting in a new line into the brick factory this year. We stepped up capacity in the tile factory last year.

Of course, we automated the robotic line in Space4 last year. That was a big step up for us.

We had some learnings from that, but that is now an efficient level of production, and we'll step up again this year. We're trying to get ourselves into a position to exactly cope with that step up in capacity.

Of course, we've just delivered a 12% growth in completions and a bigger step up in build. I think overall, we're in a good place.

Then we'll keep pushing on with build out rates this year so we can get ahead of the market. As I know that all of my MDs will be listening into this, I want to get into the glorious position when we get to the end of November, I have no CMLs off of existing sites into December.

That will be a real achievement, won't it? I don't know whether you've got anything to add to that, Andrew.

Andrew Duxbury

No, obviously, Clyde, look, we look at the build rates and sales rate. Of course, we keep looking at those.

As Dean says, we try to get ahead on build. It helps with quality.

It helps with predictability. I think certainly as well in parts of the market, particularly Charles Church, it helps with sales, actually.

We are getting after the build, which is important.

Clyde Lewis

Perfect. Thank you.

Dean Finch

I think that's it. Thank you very much for listening to us today.

Look, 2025 was a very strong year of organic growth for Persimmon, and I think the business performed brilliantly. I'm very grateful to the teams for that.

We expect 2026 to be another year of really solid growth. It is going to be driven by our strong pipeline of land opportunities, as well as the strength, and I think the diversity, of our brands and our products, and an unrelenting focus on operational excellence.

We're looking forward very much to another year of growth and another year ahead, and we shall update in March. Thank you very much for listening to us this morning.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.