Vistry on track to unseat Barratt as biggest builder and deliver one in six new affordable homes

“Given the profile of land acquisition over the past 24 months, we expect to see a short-term reduction in average outlets which will result in the delivery of 13,000 to 13,500 homes in FY25,” Barratt said in a statement.

Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive of Vistry, said its partnerships model had led to the house builder “significantly outperforming the traditional housebuilding market”.

As projected earlier in the year, Vistry reported a 9.1% increase in completions, to 7,792, compared with the same period in 2023, which it said was driven by the introduction of its partnerships model a year ago.

Under the model, Vistry pre-sells a minimum of 50% of the homes on every development to its partners and targets a 40% return on capital employed, which it says enables it to build more quickly.

The developer said the model also attracts investment, such as the £580m build-to-rent deal it agreed with private equity giants Blackstone and Regis in June.

Vistry currently has 141 partners, made up of registered providers, local authorities and landlords from the private rented sector.

Despite remediation expenditure constraining capacity among registered providers in London, Vistry said it was “maintaining delivery by continuing to work closely” with its partners.

Vistry said it had secured enough new land and development opportunities for 8,225 mixed-tenure homes during the period.

It reported a “strong forward sales position” of £5.1bn, up 19% from £4.3bn during the previous period, and said it was “91% forward sold” for the whole of 2024.

Vistry also flagged its plans to build one in six of the UK’s affordable homes, with affordable housing in total representing 54% of its completions in the first half of the year.

It also said it was targeting around 35% of units to be open-market sales, but noted that open-market completions in the first half of 2024 reached 24%.

Revenue was up 11.1%, to £1.97bn, while adjusted operating profit increased by 10% to £227.3m.

Its adjusted operating margin was 11.5% and it reported a return on capital employed of 17.8%.

“The group’s growth strategy and greater delivery of affordable housing is well aligned to the new government’s ambitions to address the country’s housing crisis,” Mr Fitzgerald said, adding that the business had “traded well over the summer months”.