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Abri’s spending on existing stock hits all-time high of £100m
Abri spent £100m on improving its existing homes in its last financial year, after taking on another smaller landlord as a subsidiary.
In its latest results, the 50,000-home group reported an 18% increase in the year to the end of March 2024, which was predominantly down to its acquisition of Silva Homes last October.
A total of £18m was spent at Silva Homes on its existing stock since it became part of Abri, which was included in the group’s accounts.
Across the Abri group, £5m was spent on building and fire safety, which included completed cladding remediation work at sites in Southampton and Bournemouth.
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A total of £4m was spent on energy efficiency measures and £1m on tackling the “root causes” of damp and mould.
The rest was on general repairs and maintenance amid a heightened focus on standards in the sector.
As a result, Abri’s operating costs increased by £21m to £193m, partly due to extra staff costs from taking on Silva Homes employees, while the cost of repairs and maintenance rose by £9m.
The group, which is one of the South of England’s biggest landlords, also revealed that across its subsidiaries there were 900 completions in the year, down from 1,017 the year before.
However, a senior Abri executive told Inside Housing in June that it was still on course to meet its 10,000-home target by a 2030.
Abri reported a 12% fall in the number of homes sold to 288. Of these, 260 were shared ownership.
However, income from first tranche sales fell by £10m to £35m.
Turnover from markets sales tripled to £9m.
Abri said that demand for property “remained high in the year, despite the continued economic pressures”.
The group’s total turnover rose by 15% to £302.1m after an increased income from social housing rents. Silva Homes accounted for £28.9m of this revenue, based on the amount of turnover it generated from joining the group on 2 October.
Abri’s bottom line was also boosted by the Silva acquisition. The group reported a post-tax surplus of £518.9m after accounting for a £464m gift, which was the fair value of Silva Homes’ net assets at the time of the acquisition.
Silva alone recorded a pre-tax surplus of £139,000 on turnover of £28.9m in the six months to the end of March 2024. This included £24.4m in operating costs and £5.1m in finance costs in the six months.
Gary Orr, chief executive of Abri, branded it an “excellent operating performance” against “strong economic headwinds”.
Abri is also in the process of taking on non-compliant London landlord Octavia as a subsidiary.
Last month Octavia became the first housing association to be handed a non-compliant C3 grade under the regulator’s new consumer standards after 1,200 fire safety remedial actions were found to be overdue. It was downgraded to G3/V3 last September.
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