Vivid Housing Association buys Bargate Homes

Hampshire-based housing association Vivid has praised the role of partnerships in helping it to deliver more homes as it announced the acquisition of developer Bargate Homes.

Operating around 30,000 homes across the south of England, Vivid declined to reveal what it paid for the Eastleigh-based housebuilder, but said the deal would enable it to ramp up its development pipeline in the next decade, building 17,000 additional homes in Hampshire and neighbouring areas. It said it planned to build 1,200 in the next year.

But Mark Perry, Vivid’s chief executive, ruled out any more acquisitions for the time being.

Perry said his operation had worked with Bargate for a number of years: “They have a fantastic track-record of building quality homes and neighbourhoods across Hampshire and beyond.

“Strong partnerships with a range of local businesses including private developers and local authorities are really important to us ensure we can deliver more homes,” he added.

Bargate saw turnover rise by nearly a third to £53.7m last year and pre-tax profit increase 64% to £5.9m. It reportedly has around 2,500 plots secured, having built more 1,000 homes since 2007.

Perry said the housebuilder’s land bank was what the housing association needed to maintain its own housebuilding ambitions.

“In addition, its expertise in land management and construction complements the skills of our team, meaning that together we can achieve much more than either business can individually,” he added.

Vivid was “committed to building more homes and continuing to improve services to meet our customers’ evolving needs and expectations, and have no plans for further acquisitions at present”, Perry said.

Bargate Homes founder Gerard Price said becoming part of Vivid after 12 years of independence would allow his firm to continue to develop its customer-focused business, while “building more individual homes in this beautiful part of the country we choose to call home”.