Vistry Group Reports H1 Loss But Sees Recovery Ahead Under New CEO’s Strategy Review

Vistry Group has used this trading update to do two things at once: admit that the first half of 2026 was weak, and argue that the pain is part of a deliberate clean-up under its new chief executive.

The headline is rough enough. The housebuilder expects a loss before tax of approximately £30 million in H1, before any further impact from the ongoing CEO review. But the bigger story is that management says it has chosen to sacrifice short-term profit to get debt down, shrink risky stock, and reset the business for 2027 and beyond.

That makes this update a bit of a balancing act. The numbers look ugly in the near term, but the strategic message is more constructive.

Vistry Group H1 2026 results: the key numbers investors need to know

Metric | H1 2026 | H1 2025 / Comparison
Homes completed | c.6,100 | 6,889
Sales rate | 1.03 | 1.01
Average discounting on private sales | 7.1% | 1.4%
H1 profit before tax excluding cash actions and early CEO review actions | c.£20 million | Not disclosed
Impact of cash generation actions in H1 | c.£(50) million | Not disclosed
Expected H1 loss before tax | c.£30 million | Not disclosed
Net debt at 30 June 2026 | £470 million | Not disclosed
Average daily net debt in H1 | £799 million | In line with expectations
Forward book | £3.9 billion | 80% forward sold for FY26
FY26 adjusted PBT consensus | £200 million | Company compiled analyst consensus

Why Vistry slipped into an H1 loss despite still selling homes

On the surface, Vistry did not suffer a collapse in demand. Its sales rate of 1.03 was similar to last year’s 1.01, which suggests buyers did not disappear overnight.

The problem is that the business had to work much harder for those sales. Average discounting from book price on private sales jumped to 7.1% from 1.4%. That is a very big move, and it tells you Vistry has been cutting prices to shift slower-moving stock and turn homes into cash.

That is painful for margins, but it looks intentional. Management says it has taken pricing actions, accelerated asset sales, cut private work in progress, and reduced exposure to higher average selling prices, or ASPs. In plain English, it is clearing the decks.

The cost of that clean-up was about £50 million in H1. So while the group says it would have made around £20 million of profit before tax without those actions and early CEO review moves, those measures pushed the reported H1 outcome to an expected £30 million loss before tax, before any extra CEO review impact.

Vistry debt reduction plan: why the £100 million net cash target matters

This is the heart of the update. Vistry is trying to convince the market that lower leverage matters more than making H1 look tidy.

Net debt at 30 June 2026 was £470 million, while average daily net debt in H1 was £799 million. Those are chunky numbers for a business now talking openly about the need for “significantly and sustainably lower financial leverage”.

The encouraging bit is that there are some concrete signs of progress. Land creditors are expected to have reduced by over £150 million during the half year, and unsold private homes in build, known as work in progress or WIP, have fallen from about £600 million at the start of the year to under £300 million.

That is not a cosmetic change. If you are a housebuilder sitting on too much half-built or unsold stock, your cash gets trapped. Reducing WIP releases cash and lowers risk.

Vistry says £190 million of that WIP reduction should be received on completion of sales during H2, and it wants a further £100 million reduction to get closer to a normalised position. It is also targeting average daily debt below £650 million in H2, versus £771 million in H2 2025, and still expects net cash in excess of £100 million at the end of 2026.

That year-end net cash target is ambitious enough that investors will want proof, not promises. But if Vistry gets anywhere near it, the balance sheet story changes materially.

New CEO Adam Daniels is reshaping Vistry’s strategy, land bank and partner deals

Adam Daniels has only been in the role for three months, and this update has his fingerprints all over it. He is clearly less interested in flattering near-term earnings and more interested in cutting risk.

There are several strands to this review. First, Vistry wants a more focused regional footprint because profitability and returns have varied significantly by region. That usually means some areas are not pulling their weight.

Second, it wants to improve commercial discipline. The group says it renegotiated several partner deals that did not meet its commercial requirements, delaying completions into July and Q3. That hurts short-term numbers, but it is probably the right call if the old terms were weak.

Third, it is attacking overheads. Following the Voluntary Exit Scheme, Vistry expects annual overhead savings of around £25 million, with the full-year benefit landing in 2027. That will not rescue H1, but it matters for future profitability.

And fourth, it is changing how it uses capital. The company is reducing land buying, reshaping the land bank, and has substantially exited its part exchange position in early July. Part exchange had tied up an average of £50 million of debt, and Vistry says it will no longer offer it.

That is a notable shift. It may remove one sales tool, but it also reduces capital intensity and should help debt.

Vistry market outlook: stable sales rate, weak open market and hopes for affordable housing funding

The wider market backdrop is not exactly friendly. Vistry says open market conditions deteriorated in the second quarter after a stronger start to the year, blaming increased uncertainty and weaker customer confidence triggered by the Middle East conflict.

Management is not expecting a significant improvement in open market conditions in H2 or early 2027. That is a cautious message, and probably the right one.

On the partnerships side, the near-term issue has been a hiatus between funding programmes. That has hit partner deal volumes in H1. Vistry is now looking for support from the Strategic Affordable Housing Programme, or SAHP, with grant allocations still expected in September.

If those allocations come through as hoped, the partner-funded side of the business should pick up. That matters because Vistry remains committed to its partnerships strategy, and it sees Registered Provider demand improving once the funding uncertainty clears.

Will Vistry still hit 2026 profit forecasts after this H1 setback?

Surprisingly, the board still expects FY 2026 adjusted profit before tax to be in line with current market consensus of £200 million. That forecast excludes any impact from the ongoing CEO review, which will be detailed on 24 September 2026.

That guidance is the most important support for the shares in this update. It tells investors that management believes H2 will be materially better, helped by stronger second-half volumes, delayed deals completing, lower overheads, land sales, and less drag from the H1 cash actions.

The obvious catch is that some parts of the CEO review are still not quantified. The company has been clear that there could be further one-off profit impacts, but the scale, timing, and whether they will be classed as exceptional are not disclosed yet.

So yes, the full-year target is intact for now, but there is still a layer of uncertainty sitting over it.

What this Vistry trading update means for retail investors

My read is fairly simple. This is a messy update, but not a panicked one.

The negative side is obvious: fewer completions, much heavier discounting, an H1 loss, high debt, and a market that remains difficult. None of that should be waved away.

The positive side is that management appears to be confronting the problems directly. WIP is being cut hard, land buying has been reined in, weak deals are being renegotiated, part exchange is going, and the company is still guiding to £200 million of adjusted PBT for the full year.

For investors, this now becomes a credibility test. If Vistry delivers the promised H2 rebound and moves towards net cash of more than £100 million by year end, this update will look like a painful but sensible reset. If it misses, the market will conclude that the clean-up is deeper and slower than advertised.

For now, I would call this cautiously positive strategically, but undeniably weak financially in the near term. September’s half-year results and CEO review will be the point where the market decides whether Daniels is genuinely fixing Vistry – or just buying time.