Vistry profits rise as completions, selling prices push higher

Housebuilder Vistry - formerly Bovis Homes - posted a 12% jump in full-year pre-tax profit on Thursday as completions and average selling prices rose.

In the year to the end of December 2019, pre-tax profit increased to £188.2m from £168.1m as total completions pushed up 2.9% to 3,867 and average selling prices rose 2.6% to £280,200. Analysts had been expecting pre-tax profit of £183m.

Group revenue was 6.5% higher at £1.1bn, while earnings per share ticked up 9.7% to 111.5p and net cash was up 185.5% to £362m.

Vistry said that with heightened uncertainty around Brexit and the general election in December, there was downward pressure on house prices in the second half of 2019. However, this was partly mitigated through a combination of the company’s own build cost saving initiatives and a lack of cost inflation. As a result, the operating profit margin improved to 17% from 16.4% in 2018.

Chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: "For the last three years, Bovis Homes has focused on putting the customer back at the centre of everything we do. As a result, and thanks to the hard work of our people, I am delighted we have achieved a 5-star HBF customer satisfaction rating. We have also made further operational progress in the year across all business areas resulting in another year of record profits.”

Vistry said it had made a "strong" start to the year, with increased levels of consumer demand across all operating regions. The underlying average sales rate per site per week was up 15%, it said, with some positive momentum on underlying pricing.