L&Q reports 7% rise in completions as maintenance spend continues to grow

During the nine-month period, L&Q completed 1,506 homes, of which 78% were for social housing tenures, up from 1,410 in the previous year.

The update also said the number of new build residential homes commenced on site had more than doubled, from 384 in the previous period to 838. The majority of these starts were later phases of existing developments.

As of the end of 2025, L&Q is operating from 75 active sites and its approved development pipeline stands at 7,770, which is a 21% decrease on the previous year.

L&Q’s turnover from sales, excluding joint ventures, fell from £131m to £92m, while the average selling price for outright market sales during the financial year to date was £379,000, down from £406,000 the previous year.

The average price of first-tranche shared ownership sales was down from £408,000 last year to £402,000.

In the year to date, L&Q has handed over 446 and sold 501 shared ownership homes.

The landlord has projected an operating surplus of between £340m and £360m in its forward guidance for the full financial year.

Its trading update said: “We forecast gross capital expenditure to be c. £314m as our development pipeline slows. We expect to deliver c. 2,069 new residential homes of which c. 73% is expected to be for social housing tenures.”

The unaudited results also showed L&Q’s EBITDA MRI margin fell to 34% from 37% in the same period last year, while interest cover was down to 168% from 170%.

Ed Farnsworth, group director of finance, said: “L&Q’s unaudited Q3 results reflect ongoing delivery against our corporate strategy, with a continued emphasis on long-term investment in the quality of our existing homes through our £3bn, 15-year Major Works Investment Programme and extensive building safety and inspection programme.

“This ongoing commitment to investing in our homes is reflected in our year‑on‑year performance.”

The landlord recently completed a transfer of 3,500 homes in South Buckinghamshire to SettleParadigm, which Mr Farnsworth said is part of its ongoing efforts to rationalise stock outside of L&Q’s core geographies of Greater London and Greater Manchester.

“Focusing our activity on areas where we have the greatest concentration of homes enables us to provide responsive services which offer best value for residents,” he said.

He also said that L&Q “made good progress” in Q3 on the sale of its private rented sector business, which is part of a strategy to “simplify L&Q, focus on our core purpose as a social housing provider and increase our financial capacity”.

On development, Mr Farnsworth said: “This quarter saw significant milestones in our development pipeline, including completing 128 affordable homes at Victoria Riverside, our first shared ownership homes in Manchester and topping out the third phase of Beam Park, which will deliver 520 new homes for Barking and Dagenham Council within a 4,000‑home masterplan.”