Vistry Group PLC said on Thursday that it was ‘significantly outperforming’ the traditional housing market, as both profit and house completions grew in the first half of 2024.

The Kent, England-based housebuilder said pretax profit rose 37% to £156.7 million in the six months that ended June 30 from £114.2 million a year before. Revenue was £1.72 billion, up 9.4% year on year from £1.58 billion.

Adjusted pretax profit rose 7.0% to £186.2 million from £174.0 million, and adjusted revenue rose 11% to £1.97 billion from £1.78 billion.

The company reported 7,792 completions for its first half, growing 9.1% from 7,143 last year. Vistry reported it was due to complete more than 18,000 units by the end of 2024, a 12% rise from the 16,118 completed in 2023. This prediction was based on the company’s forward order book of £5.15 billion, which was up 19% from £4.47 billion year on year.

Given the strength of its adjusted earnings, Vistry also announced an interim ordinary distribution of £55 million and a special distribution of £75 million. The combined £130 million will be in the form of a share buyback and is expected to begin this month. Vistry said it completed on Wednesday this week the £100 million buyback that it had launched back in April.

Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald said: ‘The group has delivered a strong half year performance with Vistry’s partnerships model significantly outperforming the traditional housebuilding market. We remain confident on delivering our medium-term targets of a 40% return on capital employed and £800 million of adjusted operating profit. In addition, since the strategy update 12 months ago, I’m pleased that the group has now announced or returned £285 million of the targeted £1 billion capital return to shareholders over three years.’

Shares in Vistry were up 4.5% to 1,377.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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