Vistry, the house builder, delivered a 223% increase of £319.5m in reported profits before tax in 2021.
The group’s adjusted profit before tax of £346m in 2021 saw a rise of 140% from £143.9m in 2020.
The private sales rate climbed by 43% to 0.76 in 2021 from 0.53 in 2020. The figure suggests a steady pace driven by a land development strategy which includes a greater share of mid-range properties.
Vistry raised the number of units completed to 6,551 in 2021 from 4,652 in 2020. The year-end net cash exceeded expectations from the start of the year with £234.5m posted in 2021, whereas in 2020 it was £37.9m.
Delivering high-quality houses is still a prime focus for the group, which has maintained a 5-star HBF customer satisfaction rating and increased its quality honours, including 12 Seals of Excellence in the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards in 2021 as opposed to 4 Seals in 2020.
The company believes that the expenses of insulation and fire safety remediation should not be paid by leaseholders, and will support the government’s efforts to find a fair solution.
“Being a successful business is also about doing the right thing. We are acutely aware of the anxiety faced by leaseholders in properties requiring cladding and fire safety remediation and we fully agree that the financial burden for this work should not rest with them. We remain committed to working with the Government to fix this difficult issue for leaseholders,” said Greg Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer, Vistry.
Vistry has assessed structures taller than 11 metres where they were the responsible party. The company has set aside funds with an additional charge of £5.7m to cover any known liabilities, bringing their total provision to £25.2m as of December 31, 2021.
Going forward, Vistry will be liable of paying 4% Residential Property Developer Tax from April 2022.
Business Ambition for 1.5°C is an initiative to which Vistry has committed in to adhere to science-based targets and meet long term sustainability goals. With their experience on the development of 54 houses at Europa Way, Vistry has hacked the solution for net zero carbon emissions.
Fitzgerald commented,”our impressive financial performance was once again matched by our delivery of high quality homes and customer service which has been recognised by our retention of the maximum five-star customer satisfaction rating from the Home Builders Federation.”
Dividends payout have doubled with a total ordinary dividend payout of 60p per share.
Vistry shares were trading up 8% at 1024p on Wednesday afternoon.