Essex landlord acquires 524 homes from L&Q

She added: “The transfer aligns with CHP’s growth strategy to deliver more great new homes in Essex. Owning and managing more homes in our core operating area makes us a stronger organisation, able to offer excellent local services to our customers.”

In addition to the stock transfer, the housing association has a strategy to deliver 500 homes a year.

This deal comes after CHP last week announced a new long-term partnership with NewArch Homes, a registered provider of social housing owned by the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund.

Under the plan, CHP will aim to deliver more homes to “help address the shortfall of affordable housing” and both organisations will develop together in Essex.

To start, NewArch Homes bought 220 homes from CHP, 59 of which are from the social landlord’s development pipeline.

Last month, it emerged that CHP and Southend-based Estuary Housing Association were in merger talks. If approved, the merger would create a 16,000-home landlord centred in Essex and one of the largest in the region.

In a release, CHP said it believes “this partnership would build on each organisation’s existing strengths by providing high-quality homes and services to local people across Essex and the surrounding area”.

In September, CHP reported an improved operating margin by eight percentage points to 33.8% in 2023-24, after selling shared ownership homes to a for-profit partner.

Its operating surplus totalled £25.9m, an increase of £5.9m year-on-year, it said in its annual report for the year to 31 March 2024.

CHP said this was down to “sales of shared ownership equity to for-profit partners” – predominantly 168 shared ownership homes that were sold to M&G.