Home Group increases development 42% after targeting shared ownership

Home Group has increased its development by 42% year-on-year.

The 56,000-home housing association, in a trading update today, said it completed 684 homes in the year to 31 September, up on 438 for the same period the previous year.

The group increased its homes built for affordable home ownership, including shared ownership, from 30 to 207 and outright sale from 47 to 98. This offset a reduction in new homes for social or affordable rent from 283 to 239.

It said: “The targeted increase in affordable home ownership has been a significant contributor to the increased delivery…with a positive spread of homes across our regions.”

Home Group said it has also seen a number of short term development opportunities, such as section 106 deals, come forward in the first half of the year and it “expects this trend to continue”

The housing association’s shared ownership sales doubled year-on-year with 119 units sold compared to 62 last year.

It said: “Build completions are ahead of expectation which has provided additional homes to sell which enabled us to deliver higher sales income than expected in the half year.”

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The group increased its turnover from £247.3m to £256.4m, while its pre-tax surplus rose 17.6% from £20.5m to £24.1m.

The group’s overall spend on maintenance increased 12% from £65.6m to £73.8m, due to an increase in repairs volumes. The group is completing 8,000 stock condition surveys this year to inform decision about investment in improving its existing homes.

Helen Meehan, chief financial officer at Home Group, said however the outturn for the second half of the year will be challenging as the group has higher maintenance costs reflecting the group’s commitment to improving homes.

She said: “Some maintenance spend planned in the first half of the year will now happen in the second half of the year, and we anticipate an increase in the volume of repairs in the winter period. However, we are still aiming to achieve our full year budgeted surplus.”