Builder Persimon Homes Thames Valley has unveiled a major rise in its fortunes, although new homes sales are down.

Latest figures from parent company Persimmon showed the firm, which will be shortly be launching its second phase of homes at Cumnor Ridge in Cumnor Hill, made a pre-tax profit of £59.7m for the six months to June 30, up 52 per cent on the same period last year.

During the period, Persimmon completed 4,439 new homes sales compared to 4,657 in the first half of last year at an average selling price of £162,647, down 3.7 per cent, which it said was due to a change in the mix of property types sold.

Managing director Ian Menham said: “A steady performance in terms of achieved sales throughout the first half of 2011 is reflective of stable market conditions and demonstrates the underlying desire to own a first property or to trade up to a larger house is still very much there.”