finance
Vistry Cuts New-Build Prices by Average 6% and Lifts Sales Rate by One-Third
Britain’s second-biggest housebuilder reported stronger open-market sales in 2026 after reducing prices and offering more incentives, but said the moves will leave first-half pre-tax profits significantly lower than a year earlier. Vistry now forecasts adjusted pre-tax profit of around £225 million for the full year, 10 percent below prior analyst expectations.
May 13, 7:27 AM·3m read1 source
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Vistry reduced the prices of some of its new-build homes earlier in 2026 and used more incentives to drive open-market sales and generate cash. Research from analysts at RBC showed that the company had knocked more than 10 percent off the prices of a number of its available homes, with the average price cut closer to 6 percent. The actions produced the intended result.
2 homes at each of its sites every week, a third more than in the same period of 2025. Those sales at lower prices have come at a cost. Vistry expects its pre-tax profits in the first half of 2026 to be lower than the £81 million delivered in the first six months of 2025.
Bosses anticipate the level of discounting and its effect on profit to reduce as the year wears on. The company now forecasts that its annual adjusted pre-tax profit is likely to be around £225 million in 2026. That figure is 10 percent or so below what analysts had been forecasting.
Vistry had been targeting an improvement in adjusted profit before tax in 2026 compared with 2025. The lower profitability reflects the up-front profit impact of the actions to accelerate cash generation. Vistry added that the use of increased incentives and discounts has been more significant on low margin sites.
6 percent, to 284¾p on the day of the announcement. Vistry shares have lost almost 80 percent of their value over the past 18 months and are now trading at levels not seen since 2008. Vistry was formed in 2020 when Greg Fitzgerald merged Bovis Homes with the housebuilding arm of Galliford Try.
Greg Fitzgerald is Vistry’s recently departed former chief executive. Towards the end of 2023 he pivoted the business towards a partnerships model building homes for housing associations and institutional landlords. Three-quarters of the homes Vistry built in 2025 were for partners.
