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Housing association buys house builder to boost pipeline

Hampshire-based housing association Vivid has acquired house builder Bargate Homes in a bid to boost the number of homes it builds in the South of England.

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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Housing association buys housebuilder to boost development pipeline #ukhousing

The association has said it wants to develop 17,000 more homes in the area over the next decade, 1,200 of which will be built this year, and believes the acquisition of the £53m-turnover builder will help it achieve this.

Vivid already owns around 30,000 homes across Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire and West Sussex, housing around 70,000 people.

Bargate is also based in Hampshire and was founded in 2006 by businessman Gerard Price. According to its accounts, the company made a pre-tax profit of almost £6m in the year to the end of September 2018, on a turnover of £53.8m. It is aiming to build 240 homes this year and said it plans to maintain production around this level for the foreseeable future.

Mark Perry, chief executive of Vivid, which was formed in 2017 after a merger between First Wessex and Sentinel, said he believed the tie-up would help alleviate the “critical shortage” of homes in the area. Vivid has previously worked with Bargate on individual schemes, but plans to use the merger to “borrow skills” from the house builder, he said.


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“Bargate currently has around 2,500 plots secured for new homes giving us access to the extra land we need to maintain the momentum of our housebuilding programme. In addition, their expertise in land management and construction complements the skills of our team, meaning that together we can achieve much more than either business can individually to meet our customers’ needs and aspirations,” Mr Perry explained.

He added that the company plans to build homes across all tenures in order to fulfil its social purpose. He said: “By acquiring Bargate we’ll have the extra capacity and expertise to make sure we achieve, and possibly even exceed, our ambitions across Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire and West Sussex.”

There would be no job losses as a result of the merger, Mr Perry said, and Bargate would continue to operate independently, with its own back office functions.

Mr Price said becoming part of Vivid would allow the company to continue to develop.

He added: “Both businesses will retain their own identity, values, people, ways of working and approach to housebuilding, and will continue to work with a wide range of existing partners as this is what is driving the success of both.”

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