Housebuilder Persimmon reported annual profits close to £1 billion as average sale prices continue to rise and it built more homes.

The company, which has more than a dozen developments across Kent, increased its number of completions nationally by 872 new homes to 16,043 last year.

Its average selling price increased by 3.2% to £213,321, with the highest average selling price of £287,713 achieved in its Southern market, up 2.8%.

In its annual report it gave special mention to "higher value sites" at Downs View in Swanley and Manor Park in Ashford for "generating good volumes".

Revenue for the year increased by 9% to £3.4 billion, with underlying pre-tax profits up by a quarter to £977.1 million.

Its share price jumped nearly 10% on the news in morning trading to about £27.35.

Persimmon also builds under the Charles Church brand, which has three developments in Kent at Upper Harbledown near Canterbury, Paddock Wood and Ebbsfleet.

Since 2012, it has increased its number of new home completions by more than 70% and invested about £3.2 billion in land.

Acting chairman Nigel Mills said: "Persimmon's performance in 2017 has been excellent.

"The group's focus on high quality growth, coupled with capital discipline, has accelerated the delivery of our strategic objectives and generated record returns for our shareholders.

"The group's outstanding performance is demonstrated by both the strength of the financial position of the business and the quality of the asset platform, which provides the opportunity to continue to deliver excellent returns moving forwards.

"The start to the spring sales season in 2018 has been encouraging with the group's private sales rate per site being 7% higher than last year at this point."