Jan 14 (Reuters) - British homebuilder Vistry on Wednesday reported a near 9% drop in total home completions for 2025, as private market sales remained sluggish in the run-up to the UK's November
Vistry's Profit Forecast Falls Short Amid Housing Market Uncertainty
Vistry's Financial Outlook and Market Conditions
Jan 14 (Reuters) - British homebuilder Vistry forecast 2025 profit below market expectations on Wednesday as home sales dropped 9% with uncertainty weighing on demand from private buyers and the prospects for social housing contracts.
Impact of Government Housing Initiatives
Vistry's shares fell over 8% in early trade, leading losses on the FTSE midcap index and across London stocks.
Market Reactions and Analyst Insights
The Kent-based company said its forward sales position stood at about 4 billion pounds ($5.37 billion) at the start of 2026, down from 4.4 billion pounds a year earlier, reflecting the softer conditions in the private housing market.
Future Expectations and Performance Outlook
Vistry, which generates most of its sales through partnerships with local authorities, housing associations and government providers, said it sold about 15,700 homes in 2025, down from 17,225 a year earlier. It reported revenue of 4.2 billion pounds, broadly flat from 2024.
VISTRY LOOKS TO BENEFIT FROM GOVERNMENT HOUSING PROGRAMME
The government's affordable housing support measures, including multi-billion-pound investments to boost supply and drive new partnership contracts, supported Vistry's sales, it said. But affordability pressures and uncertainty ahead of the November budget kept many private buyers on the sidelines.
That continued weakness in the private housing market as well as uncertainty around the November budget also delayed the timing of some partner-funded deals, CEO Greg Fitzgerald said in a statement.
Looking ahead, Vistry stands to benefit from the government's 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which provides grant funding to support the delivery of new social and affordable homes.
It expects bids under the programme in the first half of this year and early allocations to start by mid-year or early in the third quarter.
Vistry said it expects adjusted profit before tax of around 270 million pounds when it reports its 2025 results in March, below analyst expectations of 272.6 million pounds according to LSEG data.
The builder said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the impact of lower interest rates on private buyers and anticipated another year weighted towards second-half performance, though less dramatically than in 2025.
Analysts at Jefferies cautioned that investors may still need greater clarity on near-term forecasts and the company's balance sheet before turning to the group's potential growth prospects.
($1 = 0.7442 pounds)
(Reporting by Aatrayee Chatterjee and Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Joe Bavier)
