(Reuters) - British homebuilder Persimmon said on Thursday it was confident about the remainder of 2024 and reaffirmed its annual home-build targets after posting an improvement in first-quarter sales rate. The company said its forward sales - a key industry metric that gauges near-term demand - stood at 1.75 billion pounds ($2.18 billion), as of April 25, compared with 1.69 billion pounds in the year-ago period.

($1 = 0.8013 pounds)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru and Suban Abdulla in London; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)