The UK housing market is on shaky foundations. Vistry is attempting to convince investors that its tilt towards building homes for housing associations and private landlords makes it more durable to shocks.
There is some weight to that argument. Completions will come in around 16,000 this year, lower than the 18,000 guided at the time of the tie-up with Countryside Partnerships last year and lower than a like-for-like figure of 17,000 last year. That is a far less dramatic decline than that expected by some housebuilders purely selling into the private housing market. Take Persimmon, which has pointed towards a fall in completion volumes of 40 per cent this year.
The fall reflects a dial-back in building homes for the owner-occupied market and flat output
