MTVH doubles completions and boosts homes investment in first half of year

The association had completed a total of 544 homes in the last financial year, which was a 39% drop on the previous year’s figure. Over the summer, the landlord agreed £250m in new funding from a bond aggregator to boost its development plans.

MTVH cited “strong” new home starts and said it is “confident” that more than 1,200 homes will be completed in the current financial year.

Its pipeline for the next five years includes more than 4,300 homes, with 4,100 currently on site. The landlord said it is committed to delivering more mixed-tenure schemes such as Clapham Park and West Hendon.

Turnover for the first half of the year was £222.2m, which is a slight decrease from £227.1m in the same period last year, while MTVH’s net surplus was up from £14m to £16.8m.

The trading update said all of MTVH’s “financial golden rules” had been met and that its available liquidity – £843m – ensures its “development commitments are fully funded”.

The housing association’s operating margin remained the same at 27% as the first six months in the last financial year.

Investment in repairs, maintenance and capital improvement works rose from £48.3m in the first half of 2024-25 to £60.5m this year. 

“We are increasing investment in our homes and new developments without compromising our robust financial position,” the update said.

MTVH also noted that its building safety programme is “progressing as planned and is fully funded”, while its financial plan has accounted for increased costs related to Awaab’s Law. 

Rent and service charge income saw a slight increase of just under 2% to £195.2m compared with the same period last year, but outright or first tranche sales were down from £17.3m to £9.7m. 

Duncan Brown, chief financial officer at MTVH, who joined in July from Vivid, said: “We have strong financial foundations to maintain this momentum, even in volatile economic conditions. 

“We’ve grown our liquidity and expanded our investor base to ensure our development programme and building safety programme are fully funded. And we’ve anticipated increased costs from the implementation of Awaab’s Law and the new Decent Homes Standard.”

In June, MTVH reported a return to surplus in 2024-25, helped by its income from shared ownership sales rising by a quarter. 

The housing association had reported an £80.3m deficit in the previous year, which was due to £109.8m in costs related to fire safety work and write-downs on high-rise blocks.

MTVH was downgraded to a G2 for governance by the English regulator over the summer, partly over “weaknesses” in its approach to stress-testing.