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Losses shrink at for-profit after record completions and strong sales
For-profit provider Sage Homes has shrunk its losses by 82% amid strong shared ownership sales and a growth in rental revenue.
The association, which is owned by private equity giant Blackstone, saw its losses fall from £17m last year to £3m, according to its accounts made up to December 2022.
It also posted operating profits of £35m, up from £9m, and saw its turnover increase by 30% to £227m. The landlord’s operating margin was 15%, an increase from 5% in the previous year.
The organisation attributes its strong growth to increases in the sale of first tranche shared ownership homes (£16m), subsequent staircasing (£2m) and the increased number of lettings to affordable and shared ownership customers (£13m).
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The for-profit, which in 2022 built the most affordable homes across the sector, completed 3,447 properties, including 1,965 new affordable rented homes and 1,482 for shared ownership.
Its delivery figures came in below its target of 4,071, with Sage blaming its house builder partners for taking “longer to deliver new homes than planned” amid the challenging economic backdrop.
In 2022, the registered provider bolstered its leadership team, welcoming new chief operating officer, Iain McPherson, to focus on improving the quality of customers’ homes and increasing responsiveness in solving issues.
Alison Thain, chair of Sage Homes, said: “Sage Homes was created at the end of 2017 to help address the country’s affordable housing crisis. In 2022, we marked our fifth anniversary with a crucial turning point for us.
“In addition to being named England’s largest provider of newly built affordable homes for the second year running, we now have more occupied homes than in our construction pipeline. We’re keeping our promise to be a leader in this sector and we have high ambitions for the future.”
Mark Sater, chief executive of Sage Homes, said: “As well as delivering a record number of new homes in 2022, we also prioritised the quality of services we provide to our customers by increasingly taking direct responsibility to manage our customers’ homes. We revisited our purpose, mission and values to ensure we build a truly customer-centric company.”
Sage’s model works by delivering new affordable homes and selling them on to other registered providers in the Sage Group. It was set up in 2017 and has so far delivered 10,737 properties and has a target of building 30,000 homes by 2030.
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