Help me - I bought these a month ago - when they were being tipped all over the place. Since then the sector has gone down the swannie - should cut my losses (13%) or hold on for the long haul?

335p today, down a little more as markets ann. falling house prices again.
This was nearly 8 in Jan08 - howzat!
As a long-term investment one of these Builders - and - one of these "Mortgage giving" Banks - - - - - will be a great investment over time

- Ah, but which one?

When RBS makes a fist of taking over another Bank ( at peak valuation!), you can be sure a punter like me knows nowt about finances. Er, except to keep my money IN a bank, rather than "on" it.
Today - received the Begging-Mail from HBos - will try to read what's in it for me later.....I suspect it's not good. I mean - what good was the money I HAVE invested in them ( just a handful of shares, probably from the demut days, if memory serves).

307p today...guess this month will show a further drop in housing price as mortgage lending rates are still going up.

2 perhaps?

Good old GORDON.

You are right, scot. PSN is heading towards 200p and below.

Persimmon will be announcing its half-year trading statement next week.
We all know what it will reveal now.

PSN said in early Jan08 ( I think) that they would maintain the dividend AND planned to increase it. That showed some strength, and you can see a mighty blip in the sp about that time.....If that was true then, it "should" be true now....as the Crunch was plain to see by anyone that is in the upper reaches of such a company....knowing people who know people etc.
Will be interesting to see the sp movement - before (=very bad, to date)...and after!
((sp is about 1/3 of what it was then...and I recall the yield was reasonably good then...making it 3x better now...er, provided the sp doesn't slip further, which may be quite a hope whatever one thinks of one of UK "better" builders - although to date I hold none.))

could be no housebuilders left in uk by feb next year.....tw. and bdev look doomed already......anyway house prices aint going to rise till 2015.....so wont be buying anything in houses till 2013 or 2014 at earliest......they will all stagnate after another 2 years at least of being battered

There may be consolidation in the Sector... er, with PSN somewhere near the top....but who knows, what rate these big-players are leaking cash. (News today, PSN losing 1000 jobs - well that will help.).
The sp today is 225, unbelievable even a month ago - and in Jan08 it was still a strong stock, although battered....( abt 7.00 ). That's some discount, just for waiting.

Yes I agree 2 is possible - at that point many will think "enough is enough" - this week PSN results and some other builders...
So, maybe next week will achieve some clarity.

I suspect we might see another UUUUU-turn.
1) Scrap HIPs and their like - we know if a house has poor insulation, and we don't need to have a school-leaver ticking boxes to calculate the energy loss - just look at the combined Oil/Gas/Electric bills. .
2) Scrap the step in duty at 250k - this is creating a weird no-home zone....taxes should not be steped....
3) Something else...can't remember...some Government manipulation for our own good!

If the Housing Market can see some Government action, that might encourage movement - and movement creates a better climate. It's the lack of movement that makes folk wary - prices may fall, so they wait. Low prices stop folk down-sizing and the lack of deals puts pressure on the Market.

I don't think the Sector will disapear - houses are needed and new development are always popular.....except in these uncertain days.

PSN will be showing another bout of downtrend with further bad news from the building sector...I think it is sell now at 340p.

i dont hold these........but do u ever pick any winners hyleo?

also, your recent sells at des, jhl etc have shown you cant even predict downtrends in a bad market......when bull market appears again, it will be even funnier watching your predictions

We will see with PSN.

Good news for out-of-favour building stocks
PSN has reduced its something and it's looking good, it seems.
With Buys/Sells almost evens MM's have upped the price quite a lot...so new punters must be willing to pay more -

Why?
Have the young suddenly found some dosh under their matress - OR - the Government abolished Stamp-Duty ( hopes!)...No! - So, no real Market changes, just PSN adjusting their coats, for the cloder climate.

Still, good news if you bought recently.

I really can't see what the excitement is about PSN today...bad news all over...profits down miserably but mm's trying to console by saying it's not that bad and dividend cut to only 5p from 18.5p.
It will go back down below 300p...



Persimmon H1 profit slides, cuts dividend - AFX


LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - British housebuilder Persimmon Plc. reported a 64 percent fall in first-half pretax profit on Thursday and said it was cutting its dividend.

It blamed very difficult market conditions and uncertainty for the rest of 2008 for the cut in the payout to 5 pence per share from 18.5 pence.

Home sales were down 31 percent year-on-year as buyers found it much harder to get mortgages, but the company said sales volumes since April have not deteriorated any further.

Share in the company, which peaked at 1,544 pence in January 2007, were up 1.84 percent to 304.25 pence at 0727 GMT.

'We are surprised to see the group claiming that trading has not deteriorated since the slowdown in April, which flies in the face of comments from others housebuilders,' Landsbanki analyst Simon Brown said.

'This and the anticipated free cash flow of 200 million pounds in the second half should reassure doubters that Persimmon can successfully weather this storm.'

Persimmon, which in the last few months has restructured and cut 1,100 jobs, was cautious in its outlook as prices and margins remained under pressure in an industry trying to dispose of stocks of houses. It said that activity levels in the autumn selling season would give a clearer picture for 2009.

'The recent speculation regarding a change to stamp duty on housing transactions has undoubtedly caused further delay and uncertainty in respect of house purchases,' the housebuilder said.

'However, we are pleased that the government has confirmed it is considering various alternatives for assisting the housing market, particularly with respect to improving mortgage availability.'

Persimmon, Britain's biggest housebuilder by market value and number three by homes built, posted 100.9 million pounds in pretax profit for the six months to end-June, compared with 281.1 million last year and two analysts' estimates of 102.7 million and 104.9 million pounds.

It announced land write-downs of around 40 million pounds, in line with its comments in July that they would be in the tens of millions, and said its debt levels of 905.5 million pounds are comfortably within its committed facilities of 1.4 billion pounds.

I'm with hyleo ... goes up for years then down for years , this aint the bottom imho , until kids can afford to buy a house then we aint seen the bottom.

dil

average salary is only about 20-25k..........average house price was about 185-200k.........its down to about 170k now roughly

if u r waiting for someone on 20k to afford a place, then it will be 20 years unless house prices fall to average 80k or something silly which i doubt.

so i aint sure why u saying we gotta wait for young people to afford a house........i'm afraid last 10 years has left them behind

also u need 25% paid up to get decent mortgage......so person needs at least 40k prob in cash inc fees, stamp duty etc.......so again making it hard for young people.

it will be like travelling by plane soon in future.......only for the wealthier people.

uk has 2 type of people now........wealthy or poor/pauper......the gap is huge between people now

Hi Scottygetting a handle on this latest housbuilder newsPsn was a cry for help to the Government.the falling prices effect everyonea 5mil property portfolio is worth 4mil.people living in a large detached already stretched are being finished off by huge increases in ordinary billsin the middle markets where familys moved frequently to re-arrange their debt levels and rely on 20% equity increasesare trumpedand at the bottom end where youngsters cant get in because of sub-prime.are now forced to high rental shares.. those already in are sitting on minus equity and trapped to the tillerno first move no chain!no chain no house builders! families unable get everyday credit have killed retail home wareand the knock-on goes onThe very people that started the problemsgiving 120% loans to Cocker Spaniels have escaped the fallout and are getting bailed out by the government using the victims moneygood job we all listened to that twat Brown Britain are now reaping the rewardsand it has only just begun. imho!

when does market close today? Is it 12:00?

are you for real scotinvestor ? not sure what planet your on, but when you do re visit earth, you'll find a far more complicated scenario than your highly simplistic ' 2 type of people ' analogy.

4.30pm ahoj