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Stonewater’s surplus jumps 15%
Housing association Stonewater has seen its first-half operating surplus increase by 15%.
The 32,500-home landlord saw its surplus hit £39.8m in the first six months of 2019/20 against £34.5m for the same period in 2018/19, it said in a financial statement.
It raised £53m in bond funding in August and September, taking advantage of low interest rates to support expanding building and stock investment programmes.
Stonewater, which owns stock across England, had liquidity of £415m in cash and undrawn banking facilities at the end of September, excluding £103m deferred bond funding.
Excluding surpluses on disposal of fixed assets and charitable donations, the association had an operating margin of 32.4%.
Void losses in this half year were 1.1%, unchanged from the position a year earlier and just over its 1% target.
In 2018/19, Stonewater saw its full-year surplus after net interest fall 43% from £39m to £22.4m.
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Sales of shared ownership units totalled 58 in the half year but are projected at 203 for the full year – in line with Stonewater’s plans. It also sold 65 homes through the Voluntary Right to Buy pilot in the Midlands.
Spending on development in the first six months was £66m, up from £45m a year earlier – the full-year budget for this is £159m.
In the first half of 2019/20, 268 properties were handed over. The total for the full year is projected to exceed 700 units, of which two-thirds will be rented with the rest for shared ownership.
John Bruton, executive director – finance at Stonewater, said: “Stonewater remains in a strong financial position, with good liquidity access as required.”
He added: “Stonewater has very little exposure to full open market sales. Demand for our shared ownership properties remains strong and the year is expected to end on track with a similar number of sales as the 208 and 215 of the past two years.
“Although we are fortunate in that we do not have any significant fire safety exposure, we are increasing investment in our existing homes to ensure they continue to be safe.”
BPHA, formerly Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association, has also released its half-year results for the six months ending 30 September.
The 18,500-home landlord has a social housing lettings operating margin of 42.4%, marginally below the 42.8% recorded a year earlier.
Update: at 12.10pm 03/12/19 the story was updated to clarify that it was Stonewater’s surplus after net interest fall 43% in 2018/19, which is different to operating surplus.
