PERSIMMON, Britain's largest volume housebuilder, said yesterday that Scottish sales have dipped slightly in line with those in the UK as a whole but it expects a recovery in the second half of the year.

“We are very positive on Scotland, “ said Jeff Fairbairn, chief executive for Persimmon’s northern division.

The company does not break down sales figures for its operations north of the Border but said it sold 4439 homes across the UK in the six month to the end of June, down 4.7% from 4567 in the same period last year amid severe economic uncertainties.

“The mortgage market is still difficult but there are signs of improvement,” Mr Fairbairn told The Herald.

“We expect to do better in the second half of the year.”

York-based Persimmon, which delivered a trading update to the City yesterday, has been in business since 1972, and operates under three main brands, Persimmon Homes, Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships.

Mr Fairbairn said Persimmon is performing particularly well in the west of Scotland where it is selling houses at 30 outlets and is developing eight new sites. It is also buying more land in the region.

The average selling price for a Persimmon home in the west of Scotland is £162,000 but that rises to £184,000 for some new developments in the Glasgow area.

“We are doing well in and around the Glasgow area,” Mr Fairbairn said, adding that the company has sold 36 homes for a total of about £8 million at its Woodilee Village site in Lenzie. The houses were built on the site of the Woodilee psychiatric hospital, which closed in 2000 and was torn down several years ago.

First-time buyers in Scotland are still having difficulties in obtaining mortgages from lenders but Mr Fairbairn said some new products to help first-timers are coming to the market in the second half of the year.

Looking at the UK-wide picture, Persimmon said in its trading update that average selling prices fell from £168,936 a year ago to £162,000, generating sales of £715m.

However, the group said the average selling price is expected to go up as it completes more detached houses. Persimmon noted that a greater share of the homes completed during the first half were smaller house types.

“We anticipate that our average selling price for the full year will increase as we legally complete more detached house sales,” it said.

Last year, Persimmon made a pre-tax profit of £153.9m, almost double the £77.9m the company made in 2009. Revenues grew 10.5% to £1.57bn.

Persimmon’s comments echoed statements from fellow housebuilder Taylor Wimpey.

In a trading update last week, Taylor Wimpey said it had seen a slight improvement in avail-ability of mortgages, but reported a drop in UK sales for the first half as the housing market remained subdued.

“Any meaningful increase in industry output will only occur with a significant improvement in the currently constrained mortgage lending conditions,” Persimmon said.

The Nationwide Building Society said recently that house prices in the UK had “moved sideways” in the past six months, and the latest figures have suggested that mortgage lending remains flat.

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