Vistry expects to deliver a pre-tax loss of around £30million for the first half of the year, with average daily net debt just under £800million.
In a trading update for the half year to 30 June 2026, the housebuilder also announced that chief financial officer, Tim Lawlor, will step down, with the Group now starting the process of finding his successor.
The Group had expected to deliver a “modest” pre-tax profit of c.£20million for H1, excluding the impact of cash generation actions. These included enhanced pricing discounts, accelerated asset sales, changes in site mix and changes in build rate, resulting in an impact of around £50million.
As part of the update, new CEO, Adam Daniels, provided more information on Vistry’s recently announced voluntary redundancy scheme, which he expects to deliver £25million in overhead savings, and says that the company’s plan to slow build out rates would also improve cashflow.
Adam Daniels said: “In the three months I have been in the role, I am encouraged by the progress we have made, and continue to make, on re-focusing the business. We are taking the necessary decisions to position Vistry for future success and to ensure that we can take advantage of the significant opportunities that our differentiated business model offers. The management team believes that the long-term success of the business must be at the core of our decision-making, and as such, we are treating 2026 as a transition year to reposition the business to operate with significantly and sustainably lower financial leverage and healthy profitability.”
“Our recent initiatives have included pricing actions on slower-moving stock, reducing our exposure to higher ASPs, reducing the amount of private WIP, and targeted reductions in our landbank, all of which have had a sizeable adverse impact on the profit recorded in the first half of the year. These initiatives are well progressed, which positions the business to achieve a significant improvement in profitability in H2, as well as a materially stronger balance sheet position. We continue to expect to deliver a substantial reduction in average net debt levels in the second half of 2026 and continue to forecast a net cash position in excess of £100million at the end of 2026.”
“We have previously announced that I am leading a thorough review of our strategy and execution. I remain absolutely committed to our differentiated partnerships strategy and I believe there is a significant opportunity to develop a more focused Vistry with improved profitability, a stronger balance sheet, higher returns on capital, and more consistent delivery. This can be achieved as we continue to deliver quality homes for our partners at pace. We have already begun to action some organisational changes and I look forward to sharing the full results of the review in September, including our initial thoughts on target financial metrics for 2027 and beyond.”
During the first half of the year, the Group completed c.6,100 homes across all tenures, down from 6,889 in H1 2025, with over half of these being for affordable housing.
The Group’s sales rate slightly improved year-on-year to 1.03 from 1.01, however its average level of discounting on private sales jumped to 7.1%, compared to 1.4% the previous year.
Looking ahead, Vistry says that it expects the challenging market conditions and lower customer confidence to continue in H2 and into early 2027 and is not anticipating any demand-side stimulus. However, it predicts that its cost-saving measures will result in a “materially improved” H2 2026 cash and profit performance.
