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Clarion’s market sale arm posts loss
Latimer Developments, the market sale development arm of the UK’s largest housing association, has posted a £6.9m loss in its accounts for the last financial year.
Latimer develops market sale homes for 125,000-home Clarion Housing Group in London, the South East, the East of England, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
In the last financial year, it made a total turnover of £13.2m, slightly down on its turnover from the previous year, which was £13.7m, according to its accounts.
While in the previous year it made a profit of £1m, last year it made a loss of £6.9m – more than half the value of its turnover.
The news about Latimer comes amid wider concerns about social landlords in London, as many of the larger housing associations in the capital alter their development plans.
London’s housing market has been badly hit in recent years. The most recent figures revealed the biggest drop in house prices since 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
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According to its accounts, Latimer’s loss was in large part due to an increase in the amount of interest it had to pay, which rose from £1.8m to £7.3m. At the same time, however, the interest it received rose from £2.5m to £6.4m.
The accounts also reveal that Latimer recognised a loss of value on one of its schemes of £2.5m, something it did not have to do at all in the previous year.
Furthermore, it expensed £1.4m of sales and marketing costs, up from £0.5m, and wrote off £1.5m in abortive costs, up from £0.6m.
A Clarion spokesperson said: “[Latimer] was created to purchase and develop large sites with a mixture of tenures. Many of the sites purchased will come to market over the coming years once they secure planning. The financial results this year reflect the initial start-up costs and investment to grow the business.
“While it is still in its infancy, over the past year we have invested significantly in growing Latimer’s development programme and we fully expect to see an increase in revenue generated from sales over the coming years.”
Housing association financial statements 2018/19
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