Vistry has pre-sold almost 3,000 homes across 70 sites as it continues to reduce its interest in private homebuilding.
The Kent-based company reached a deal that will see private rental sector operator Leaf Living acquire 1,522 homes and registered social landlord Sage Homes to buy 1,393 affordable units.
Vistry recently set out plans to fold its housebuilding operations into its partnership business to enable a greater focus on term sales. He said this would increase workload visibility and asked suppliers for significant discounts on agreed prices.
The company, which hopes to use existing Homes England grant funding to enable an initial tranche of building work, said the latest deal exemplified its “business model of high-performance partnerships and light capital”.
Both Sage and Leaf are backed by fund manager Blackstone and investor Regis Group. The acquired units have a gross development value of £819m and are expected to start construction later this year.
The company expects an initial cash receipt of £160m this financial year, with further payments in stages over the course of the development programme.
Chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: “We have an excellent track record of working in partnership with Leaf and Sage to deliver new homes and I am delighted to have reached agreements to grow these relationships through this exciting market leading opportunity.
“Through our unique partnership model, Vistry is continuing the drive to deliver much-needed affordable homes across the UK.
“Our strategy gives the group significantly greater earnings visibility than traditional housebuilders and this new partnership and others to follow will help us progress towards our medium-term targets and the delivery of £1bn in distributions to shareholders over the next three years.”
Meanwhile, fellow builder Persimmon told the city its trading over the past four months had been in line with expectations.
New home completions were down 37 per cent on the same period last year, but the firm said its “recent planning success” meant it had “a number of new sites progressing through the pipeline”.
Long-term “fundamentals” for the housing market “remain positive,” Persimmon added in a trading update.
