The before-tax profit was £330m, up from the 2012 figure of £222m. The revenue rose to £2.1bn from £1.7bn.
The number of completions grew 16% to 11,528 and the average selling price rose 4% to £181,861. The company's operating margin grew to 16% from the 12.9% in 2012, and reached 16.6% in the second half of the year.
Persimmon bought a further 17,735 plots of land during the year, giving it a landbank of 74,407, which represents a supply for 6.5 years.
Group chairman Nicholas Wrigley said: "Persimmon achieved a strong result for the year as we responded quickly to the increased customer demand that resulted from improved mortgage lending, the introduction of Help to Buy in April 2013 and the increase in consumer confidence as the UK returned to more meaningful economic growth. Our success in increasing build rates significantly in response, with second half volumes 30% ahead of those in the first six months, underpinned a robust overall performance.
He added that the group entered 2014 with a very strong forward order book and the early weeks of the spring selling season have been encouraging, with weekly private sales rate per site being 22% ahead of last year for the first eight weeks.
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