<p>Vistry Group has had a “strong” second half performance, driven by its Partnerships business, and expects its full year pre-tax profit to be around £140 million – the top end of expectations, it said today (January 12 2021).</p> <p><span>Issuing a trading update on the year ending December 31 2020, the business said it had seen strong demand throughout the year, with its private sales rate per outlet per week rising </span><span>15% in its second half to 0.62 against H2 2019.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>It stated that during the second national lockdown in November, customers continued to reserve homes. In the last six weeks of the year, its underlying sales rate was up 20% against the equivalent period in 2019.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Vistry also said that, “whilst very early”, it had seen no impact from the current, third lockdown.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>But during 2020, completions in Vistry’s Housebuilding division decreased as a result of the pandemic, falling from 6,884 in 2019 to 4,652. Housebuilding’s private units dropped from 4,775 in the previous year to 3,668. The private average selling price was around £344,000.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>Meanwhile, the mixed tenure Vistry Partnerships division made “excellent progress”. Completions rose 28% to 1,479 units and increased 70% in the second half year-on-year to …