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Sovereign’s private sales income up 24%
Large housing association Sovereign saw the amount it earned through the sale of homes for the private market increase by 24%, it has revealed in its annual accounts.
The association made £20m from open market sales in 2018/19, a 24.2% increase on the previous year’s figure of £16.1m. It also saw its turnover from sales hit £55.2m for the year, up 44.5% on last year’s figure of £38.2m.
The 59,000-home housing association built 530 homes for shared ownership over the year, out of a total of 1,543 new homes.
Sovereign’s experience differs from many of the large associations in London and the South East of England which have struggled with market sale over the past year due to difficult market conditions.
Despite the increases in the sale of shared ownership and private homes, Sovereign’s surplus dropped slightly last year from £104m to £98.9m.
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The association took in £402.1m in turnover, up 6.3% from £378.2m on the previous year, with the increase in turnover from shared ownership being the most significant increase.
Nevertheless, Sovereign’s turnover from lettings of social and affordable rented housing still accounted for 71% of its total turnover for the year.
Last year, Sovereign invested £93m in its existing homes, including £17m of investment on improvements like kitchens, bathrooms, heating, boilers and roof replacements.
It also bolstered its in-house safety and compliance team as part of a post-Grenfell safety strategy. Sovereign owns homes in 34 buildings over six storeys in height and said that none of them have aluminium composite material, as Grenfell Tower did.
In his written statement for the accounts, chief executive Mark Washer said: “With a new five-year strategy, investing more and re-imagining solutions to old problems, we aim to grow sustainably and really maximise the social impact of everything we do.
“We can provide more homes, better homes, with services for people priced out of the housing market. But we want to go further, so we’re putting in place plans that will guide us for the next 30 years.”
Housing association financial statements 2018/19
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