Vistry Group, one of Britain\u2019s biggest housebuilders, has warned of a loss in the first half, caused by a load of unsold homes forcing it to resort to discounting.<\/p>\n
Adam Daniels, the new chief executive, has been in post for three months and has pushed through price cuts to shift homes that won\u2019t sell. Vistry, formerly known as Bovis Homes, had \u00a3600m of unsold private homes at the start of the year, but has roughly halved this and is left with under \u00a3300m of unsold properties.<\/p>\n
It said \u00a3190m of the reduction will come through upon completion of the sales during the second half.<\/p>\n
The average level of discounting on private sales was 7.1%, up from 1.4% in the first half of last year.<\/p>\n
Vistry expects to make a loss before tax of \u00a330m in the first half of the year, worse than its estimate in May when it forecast a significantly reduced profit compared with last year.<\/p>\n
Its chief financial officer, Tim Lawlor, has quit after four years with the company. He will leave in October to take up a CFO role in a large privately-owned business in a different sector.<\/p>\n
After a positive start to the year, market conditions deteriorated in the second quarter, reflecting increased uncertainty and lower customer confidence triggered by the Middle East conflict, Vistry said.<\/p>\n
double quotation markAlthough we would welcome some demand-side stimulus we are not anticipating a significant change in open market conditions in the second half, or in early 2027.<\/p>\n
Build cost inflation is stabilising at around 3%-4% after rising in the first half, with costs of building materials pushed higher by the ramifications of the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The new boss Daniels is carrying out a review of the business and will announce the outcome in September. The company is seeking to cut \u00a325m of annual costs through voluntary redundancies and more selective hiring.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Vistry has shifted towards building social homes in partnership with with housing associations, local authorities and build to rent investors, and is negotiating new framework agreements with 10 of its key partners.<\/p>\n
Vistry rebranded from Bovis after taking over the housebuilding division of Galliford Try in a \u00a31.1bn deal in 2020 and acquired the \u201cpartnerships\u201d business <\/a>Countryside<\/a> for \u00a31.3bn two years later.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.16 EDT<\/p>\n Segro, the FTSE 100 warehouse landlord, is forming a joint venture to build a data centre in Paris.<\/p>\n The company is in talks with the US logistics company Prologis about a proposed \u00a312.6bn takeover, plans to construct a fully fitted data centre in a 50-50 partnership with the UK-based Pure Data Centres Group.<\/p>\n Segro is also discussions over a first fully fitted data centre lease in Park Royal, London. 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Lauren Almeida<\/p>\n