VISTRY has sold £819m worth of housing units to Leaf Living and Sage Homes, both backed by alternative asset management giant Blackstone, as the company shifts to becoming a solely affordable home builder.

Delivery of the 2,915 units is set to begin this year and be mostly complete within the next two years.

The company said the agreement marked "one of the largest new build residential investment transactions on record".

Leaf will acquire 1,522 units for private rent, while Sage will receive 1,393 affordable units for rent and shared ownership.

Vistry announced in September that it would pivot to focus exclusively on social housing after high mortgage costs hurt sales.

The market initially welcomed the shift, with shares soaring by nearly 14 per cent to make Vistry the biggest riser on the FTSE index.

Vistry said last month that it would cut 200 jobs and make £40m less profit than expected as part of the shake-up.

Greg Fitzgerald, the firm's chief executive, said: "Through our unique partnerships model, Vistry is maintaining the momentum of delivery of much needed affordable housing across the UK.

"Our strategy gives the group significantly greater visibility on earnings than traditional housebuilders and this new partnership and others to follow, will help us drive towards our mediumterm targets and the delivery of £1bn of shareholder distributions over the next three years."

Vistry said the deal was in line with its strategy of pre-selling 65 per cent of all units across the business.

Vistry's share price closed 3.20 per cent in the green following the news.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper