Vistry to see half year profit hit

Vistry has made “excellent progress” on its initiative to drive sales of its completed stock of open market units. But it warned that its first half profit would be “significantly” lower than last year, thanks to offering discounts to achieve sales.

In an update covering the period from January 1 2026 to date, the partnerships housebuilder said it had seen a 32% increase in the group's overall year-to-date sales rate compared to the same period last year, to 1.2 sales per site per week.

Vistry noted “some moderation in recent weeks” in its sales rate reflecting the uncertainty of the Middle East conflict. It also stated that the war was causing some “upward pressure” on materials and to a lesser extent labour prices which it expected to continue into the second half of the year.

It also said that the use of increased incentives and discounts had been “more significant” on low margin sites and schemes nearing completion, “resulting in an earlier recognition of profit impacts and a higher weighting of the overall profit impact in the first half than previously anticipated. We expect the level of discounting and its effect on profit to reduce in the …