YORK-BASED national housebuilder Persimmon announced its revenues for 2016 were £3.14 billion, eight per cent higher than the previous year's £2.9 billion, in a trading update this morning (Thursday).

The group said legal completion volumes had increased by 599 new homes to 15,171, and its average selling price had gone up by four per cent to about £206,700, compared with £199,127 in 2015.

The announcement was made ahead of the group's final results for the year ended December 31, 2016, which will be announced on February 27.

The Press reported in August that Persimmon's results for the first half of 2016 had shown a growth in revenues of 12 per cent compared with the first six months of 2015.

"Sales reservations through the autumn season were strong with healthy customer demand for new homes," the group said, adding  that its private sales rate for the second half of the year was 15 per cent ahead of the previous year and second half-legal completion volumes of 7,933 were 695 stronger than for the first half of the year (7,238).

"We have continued to focus on disciplined high-quality growth to achieve sustainable market share in our regional markets," the group said.

"We expect our gross margin in the second half will have improved further due to a combination of the continued reduction in our land cost recoveries associated with opening new sites, and the continued strong control over development costs."