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Southern Housing and Sanctuary in talks over merger to create UK’s largest housing association
Two giant housing associations have confirmed that they are exploring a potential merger that would see them create the largest housing association in the UK.
Sanctuary and Southern Housing Group announced to the stock market today that their boards have agreed to enter into due diligence and dialogue over a potential merger.
If a merger is agreed, this would create the largest association in the country, with Sanctuary owning 100,000 homes and Southern owning 30,000. Clarion is currently the biggest landlord with 125,000 homes.
The board for both organisations have said that full proposals for a potential partnership will be made in the summer. The associations added that they would make a further announcement when appropriate.
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Sanctuary currently has a turnover of £763m and 13,500 staff, while Southern has a turnover of £236m and a workforce of 1,000 staff members.
Sanctuary is a national housing provider with homes across the country as well as in Scotland through its Scottish arm, Sanctuary Scotland. Southern is focused on London and the South East of England, with homes in the Isle of Wight, Reading and a number of London boroughs.
In addition to its social housing offering, Sanctuary owns more than 100 care homes and supported housing and student accommodation through its various arms.
The talks with Southern is the latest major merger attempt by Sanctuary after it looked to join forces with extra-care and retirement specialist Housing 21 in 2016. The merger talks eventually broke down with the 32,000-home landlord after Sanctuary said “operational synergies were not met by an acceptable cultural fit”.
Sanctuary was also involved in one of the sector’s most notable mergers in recent times. It was brought in by the English regulator to save beleaguered landlord Cosmopolitan, which was on the brink of insolvency after a misguided venture into student accommodation hit its finances.
Last April, Southern announced that it had merged with small Surrey-based association Crown Simmons in a bid to deliver more homes in Surrey and Sussex. As part of the deal, Crown Simmons would keep its name but Southern would provide services, such as repairs and resident involvement, for Crown Simmons tenants.
