May 16 (Reuters) - British housebuilder Vistry raised its annual homebuilding target by about 3% to over 18,000 on Thursday, buoyed by resilient demand for its affordable homes, mainly from housing associations.

The delay in the Bank of England's interest rate cuts has tempered hopes of a better-paced recovery in the British housing market, but Vistry's sole focus on affordable homes has given it an advantage over peers.

CEO Greg Fitzgerald said the company was on track to deliver more than 10% growth in home-build output in the fiscal year 2024, with half-year and annual year profit expected to be ahead of last year.

The company, which has bigger share of its sales flowing in from its business partnering with local authorities, housing associations and government providers, said forward sales as at May 14 totalled 4.9 billion pounds ($6.21 billion), up 10% on prior year.

Vistry, one of Britain's biggest homebuilders in terms of annual units built, said the group's total sales rate averaged at 0.96 units year-to-date, compared with 0.87 a year ago, and has improved to 1.23 units over the last eight weeks. ($1 = 0.7888 pounds) (Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)