Housing 21 cuts development but boosts stock through acquisitions

Housing 21’s development has fallen 58% year-on-year.

The care specialist, in a trading update for the year ending 31 March, said that it had completed 289 homes in the financial year down from 691 the previous year. The figure is also lower than the 353 homes it was originally targeting in the year.

The Birmingham-based association also said that it is now aiming to increase development to 400 homes a year, rather than the 800 homes a year it had talked about last summer.

It said: “Starts on sites were down on the previous year due to delays in planning, grant approvals and the upward trend in construction prices making the financial viability of schemes coming forward challenging.

“We have a very healthy programme of prospects and hope that in future we will be able to meet our development goals, despite the continuing challenges of planning approvals and other pressures

Housing 21 however acquired 427 homes from Notting Hill Genesis, meaning it boosted its stock by 681 homes overall when taking into account disposals.

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It said: “While there was a slight drop in new developments, we did see a strong increase in acquisition opportunities and in February 2023 we purchased seven Extra Care schemes (427 properties) from Notting Hill Genesis together with the care contracts.”

The association also announced last month that it has acquired a further 445 homes from Clarion.

Housing 21 said that it has increased turnover by 12.1% to £251.5m. However its operating surplus fell by 14.6% to £26.4m.

The group’s operating costs rose 16.1% to £225.4m, which it said was due to increased planned maintenance and inflation. Its shared ownership first tranche sales also dropped by 10.7% to £20m