©Bloomberg

Persimmon, the UK’s second-largest housebuilder by output, said it remained confident in its ability to deliver a long-term dividend programme even as Britain’s vote to leave the EU has sparked broad worries about the sector.

But its shares sold off by 7.2 per cent on Tuesday, in line with its peers, as investors became increasingly pessimistic about the future of UK property.

“We remain confident in our ability to deliver the capital return plan to our shareholders,” the group said in a trading update, referring to a planned £2.76bn payout plan over 10 years, as it reported a 12 per cent boost to earnings in the six months to the end of June.

The company offered little formal guidance on trading since the referendum, but Jeff Fairburn, chief executive, said: “The market is still there — people are still buying. Our net sales were in line with the previous few weeks’ trading.”

He said the group had not reduced its rates of construction, despite an index showing on Wednesday that overall UK construction dropped in June to its lowest level in seven years, partly due to a decline in housebuilding.

Persimmon said its private sales were 1 per cent higher than a year earlier in May and June, again defying a broader slowdown in the housing market in the period leading up to the referendum.

Revenues were up 12 per cent to £1.5bn, while completions of new homes increased 6 per cent from a year earlier to 7,238 and selling prices rose by 6 per cent to £205,500.

The group said it expected its operating margin to be even higher than the 23 per cent reported a year earlier.

Its share price had outperformed rivals this year until the referendum partly due to a big increase in its dividend payout plan announced in February.

But the sector has since sold off, along with real estate investment trusts, on fears of a drop in property values.

Persimmon said £462m of cash holdings gave it the “balance sheet strength to navigate future changes in trading conditions”.