Vistry sees better housing market as profits surge

UK house builder Vistry on reported better-than-expected full-year profits and said market conditions were improving.

The company posted a 21% rise in adjusted pre-tax profit to £418.4m for the year to December 31 against an average estimate of £411.1m. However, the final dividend was cut to 32p a share from 40p a year earlier.

Vistry, which includes the Bovis Homes and Linden Homes brands, said it was seeing an improved sales trend in the first 11 weeks of the current fiscal year, with year-to-date average private sales rate per site per week at 0.54, which increased to 0.62 in the last four weeks as consumer confident started to rebound after the disastrous mini-budget of then prime minister Liz Truss last September.

She tried to impose an unfunded £44bn package of tax cuts, which spooked bond markets and forced mortgage lenders to pull thousands of deals - leading to a slowdown in the housing market as loan rates jumped and fears of an economic downturn rattled buyers.

“We have seen increased consumer confidence from Q4 2022, particularly as mortgage rates have trended downwards and availability has improved,” the company said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, activist shareholder Jeff Ubben, founder of Inclusive Capital Partners, a San Francisco hedge fund that made a hostile takeover bid for Countryside Partnerships last yea, has joined the board as a non-executive director.

Ubben's play, in which he garnered a 9% stake, saw Countryside turn to Vistry, which took over Countryside for £1.25bn last November.

Inclusive Capital Partners is now Vistry’s second largest shareholder, representing a 5.9% stake worth around £150m.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com