Your Housing Group plots major stock rationalisation

The 34,000-home landlord is understood to have identified properties across the North West that are not fit for purpose, and is already thought to have sold 850 units, as part of an initial tranche of 1,200 homes.

Having announced last year that it was embarking on an offsite construction venture with China National Building Material Company, the housing association is going on an efficiency drive.

It is demerging from both Derwent & Solway Housing Association and Leasowe Community Homes, taking more than 4,000 homes out of its portfolio.

A further 4,000 are expected to be released on a piecemeal basis to a variety of operators in the North West, following a large-scale stock survey that took place last year.

Brian Cronin, chief executive of Your Housing Group, said: “We’re putting a lot of effort into developing new homes, and to become asset-efficient we are demerging two organisations, while we consolidate other bits of the group.”

Mr Cronin said that the units ripe for disposal were those that are expensive to maintain, and that the group wanted to ensure that surpluses were being used for new homes, rather than repairs and maintenance on not-fit-for-purpose assets.

Your Housing is one of a number of landlords currently looking at stock rationalisation. Richard Petty, lead advisor for housing at JLL, said the market for stock rationalisation would double this year compared with last year.

He said: “I think we’re going to see an unusually busy year in the stock rationalisation market,” he said.

Mr Petty said that the average yearly number was 3,000 to 3,500 units, and that “anecdotally” up to 7,000 homes could be rationalised.

He said that the glut of stock rationalisations was not a result of this week’s deregulation, which will make it easier for landlords to sell stock without needing sign-off from the regulator. Instead, it was more a result of landlords looking for efficiencies following mergers.