House-builder Persimmon posts 44 pct rise in full-year profit

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - British house-builder Persimmon reported a 44 percent rise in full-year profit on Tuesday after it sold 13,509 homes in 2014, and said the outlook for the property market was positive.

The company posted underlying pretax profit of 475 million pounds ($734 million) on revenue up 23 percent to 2.6 billion pounds.

It said 2015 had started well, with current total forward sales running 5 percent ahead of last year.

($1 = 0.6471 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)