Aster Group increases development by 38%

Aster Group has increased its development by 38% year-on-year.

The 32,000-home housing association, in an unaudited update today, said that it has met its target of completing 1,300 homes in 2022/23.

This represents a significant increase on the 939 it completed the previous year and would place Aster comfortably in the top 10 biggest developing associations.

The association plans to invest £2.3bn in building 10,000 homes over the next seven years and said it has a pipeline of 4,000 homes to be delivered by 2025. 

The association’s full audited financial statements will be published in the next few months.

Aster is based in Hampshire and operates across southern counties including Wiltshire and Somerset. It expanded into London through the acquisition of 1,800-home care and retirement housing specialist Central & Cecil in 2021.

The group is building 300 homes a year through its strategic partnership with Homes England.

>> See also: Can HAs keep development going as the rest of the market slows?

Of the 1,300 completions, more than half were for affordable or social rent, with 466 for shared ownership and 17 for market rent. A total of 131 were delivered through a joint venture with Vistry.

Amanda Williams, chief investment officer at Aster Group, said: “With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to bite, our focus is on making sure we’re maintaining our diverse pipeline of new affordable homes across our regions and ultimately delivering excellent services to the customers living in them so they can live comfortably and with certainty, now and into the future.””

The increase in development comes at a time when many housing associations are scaling back development due to capacity and funding constraints. The G15 group in London last week warned its members will cut development by up to a third without government support.