Ritika Janiya
Vistry Group aims to close 18,000 homes in 2024, up from 16,118 built the previous year. A strong first half has been experienced and, with the business now in transition to a partnership model, it is believed that profits will keep on the upward trajectory. Part of the entitled land will be used to help the UK’s affordable housing crisis, driven by the government’s increased demand for homes.
Vistry Group, the famous property developer in the UK, is all set this year to complete over 18,000 homes—an impressive figure and a jump from the 16,118 homes completed last year. The firm, which was rebranded from Bovis Homes Group, boasts very strongly of these inspiring performances and forwards goals.
In the interim half of the year, Vistry completed around 7,750 homes, which is quite a notable increase in home completions. It marked an increase of 8% compared with a similar period a year ago. The firm now expects annual operating profits to increase, by about 10%, to £227 million.
The selling rate went up to 1.21 homes on average compared to 0.86 in the previous period, attributed to the rising demand for homes and Vistry’s business mode switching to partnerships.
Last September, Vistry brought its housebuilding and partnerships divisions together with the ambition of addressing the UK’s shortness of mixed-tenure and affordable housing. They promptly secured an £819m deal with Sage Homes and Leaf Living to deliver close to 3,000 new homes.
The Kent-based housebuilder did not stop there. It agreed another deal worth around £580m with Leaf Living to build another 1,750 homes, while teaming up with Blackstone, together with Regis Group, to build 1,750 properties, with another likely deal expecting an agreement in principle soon. Vistry assumes that about three-quarters of their housing completions this year will be partner-funded sales.
Vistry’s CEO, Greg Fitzgerald, said he was confident regarding the performance of the company and its future. He added, «The group has delivered a strong performance in the first half, which underpins the board’s confidence in its expectations for the full year.
He added that Vistry will be ready to work with the new government when it comes into office to immediately begin tackling the UK housing crisis. The Labour Party has since pledged to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years as a way to boost the economy. This would mean 300,000 homes per year being built. Their means to get this accomplished includes updating the National Policy Planning Framework, re-introduction of mandatory housebuilding targets, developing on lower-quality ‘grey belt’ land, and the creation of new towns.
Yet even with these ambitious targets, in the 12 months to March 23, only 212,570 new homes were completed in England: far short of the previous government’s aim of 300,000 a year. Some blame local nimbyism, some failures in the planning system, others interest rate rises, and others the loss of staff in local councils.
Shares in Vistry Group Plc were recently down 1.4% at £12.74 on Tuesday afternoon but remain around 40% up on the year to date, underlined the market recognition of the company’s resilience and potential moving forward.
In conclusion, home completions and profits for Vistry Group will not experience the extremes of the previous year but, on the contrary, grow tremendously in this year. With very strong results and strategic partnerships in the first half, they are supported not only to press the UK housing challenge but settle the current one.
