Vistry: Housebuilder boss quits as output falls
The boss of the UK’s second-biggest housebuilder has quit as the company battles with falling revenue and output caused by the uncertainty around last year’s November Budget.
The news spooked investors as Vistry Group’s share price nosedived on Wednesday, down as much as 22 per cent to 490p.
Vistry’s chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said he will retire in May and blamed the speculation leading up to the Budget for slowed performance in the second half of the year.
Pre-tax profit jumped slightly – in line with Vistry’s forecasts – by two per cent to £269m, while revenue fell by four per cent to £4.2bn for the year to December 2025.
Fitzgerald said the firm’s financials were “in line with guidance…despite continued challenges in the Open Market and the uncertainty created by the November Budget.”
The group, which is listed on the FTSE 250, built 15,658 homes last year, a drop of nine per cent from 2024.
Housebuilding market ‘challenging’
The firm performed worse than expected in the third and fourth quarters of last year due to the delays to the Budget, its results said.
But Vistry said it welcomes the government’s reforms to the planning system, which it said will allow housebuilders to meet Labour’s target of building 1.5m homes by the next election.
While the firm said market conditions are “challenging” and geopolitical events may bring “uncertainty”, it claimed to be “cautiously optimistic” about growth this year.
Announcing his retirement, Fitzgerald said: “It is an exciting time for Vistry as it focuses on addressing the chronic affordable housing shortage.
“After over 45 years in the sector, it is the right time for me to retire and I am confident that Vistry will go from strength to strength well into the future.”
Discussing the group’s performance last year, he said: “Vistry delivered one in seven of the country’s affordable homes last year, which demonstrates the crucial role the business plays, and will continue to play, in building the homes the UK so desperately needs.”
Anthony Codling, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, described Fitzgerald as one of the “most charismatic and entertaining” bosses in the housing market and questioned whether his departure was premature.
Codling said: “The need for social and affordable housing remains acute, and we may look back with hindsight and conclude that Mr Fitzgerald’s move, unlike his comic timing, was a little early.”
Speaking to analysts on Wednesday, Fitzgerald insisted his retirement was taken for personal reasons and had been planned long in advance: “It is the right time to go,” he said.
Vistry’s competitor Barratt Redrow, which is the UK’s most productive housebuilder, appointed a new boss on Wednesday.
The blue-chip firm announced former infrastructure boss Dean Banks will be taking the reins as chief executive, as the housebuilder battles to regain investor confidence after a dividend cut last month prompted its share price to stumble.
On Tuesday, a leading construction firm said the sector is in gradual recovery but warned hikes to minimum wages and planning delays risk hampering housebuilding projects.