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Persimmon affordable housing completions rise by 31% but slow growth expected for 2026
Completions at Persimmon rose ahead of market expectations by 12% in 2025, but the house builder expects slow growth in the affordable market over the next year.
Persimmon affordable housing completions rise by 31% but slow growth expected for 2026 #UKhousingThe York-based builder’s year-end trading update, released ahead of the full results to be published on 10 March, said it had completed 11,905 homes in 2025, up from 10,664 the previous year.
Of these completions, 2,075 were affordable homes, a 31% increase on the 1,589 delivered in 2024.
Persimmon had signalled throughout the year that it expected to increase affordable housing delivery by around a fifth in 2025, saying it had been “proactive” and improved relations with social landlords.
But the house builder said that despite higher completions, it has fewer homes in the order book coming into 2026, pointing to various pressures facing social landlords.
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The trading update said that “fewer bulk sales in the order book, and continued challenges in the registered provider market, are likely to slow our growth in these markets in 2026”.
Pressures on registered providers’ finances mean there is less appetite for Section 106 homes, but the 10-year rent settlement and upcoming rent convergence decision may increase confidence and activity, Persimmon explained.
Its forward sales as of the end of 2025 stand at £1.17bn, of which £492m is for housing associations, across 3,077 homes.
This is a drop of 1% from the 3,110 housing association homes included in Persimmon’s forward sales at the same point last year.
The update also said the house builder is progressing its building safety remediation programme, having spent around £60m on this during 2025.
On its outlook for 2026, Persimmon said: “At this stage, we expect underlying build cost inflation to be similar to 2025 and we remain in a strong position to manage costs given our unique level of vertical integration.
“We are conscious of additional regulatory costs, and we will continue to look to mitigate these where possible. For example, landfill tax charges will double from April 2026 with further annual increases thereafter.
“We welcome government changes to the planning system, although these will take time to fully take effect. Assuming trading conditions remain stable, we are on track to achieve current market expectations for 2026.”
Persimmon expects to complete 12,043 homes by the end of 2026.
Dean Finch, group chief executive, said: “Persimmon performed well during 2025, in a challenging market. We have delivered a 12% growth in completions, ahead of market expectations, and we expect to report underlying profit before tax at the upper end of market expectations.
“This performance demonstrates the benefit of our sustained investment in recent years, alongside our self-help strategy, broad geographic coverage and increased outlets to create a differentiated growth platform.”
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