One of England’s largest housing associations will sell 1,200 of its homes as it exits more than a quarter of the council areas it operates in.
Genesis Housing Association will pull out of 26 of the 88 local authorities in which it operates during a five-year stock rationalisation process due to begin next financial year.
According to Inside Housing:
The 33,000-home landlord will sell stock largely in Lincolnshire and the surrounding area, in order to focus more closely on its core area of London.
It has not yet valued the stock, but will look for other housing associations to purchase it following board approval and consultation with tenants.
The average selling price for a social housing unit is £57,000, meaning the sales could net Genesis around £70m – although there is wide variation between the value of different stock based on size, location and tenure.
Neil Hadden, chief executive of Genesis, said: ‘This is a five year plan, and we are still at a very early stage. We are doing it to help us concentrate on our core area and reduce the size of our footprint.
‘The homes have tenants and grant attached to them, so we would need to look for another housing association to take them on. The next step is working up a plan for how we go about it – which will involve consulting with tenants.’
Richard Petty, director of affordable housing at JLL, said the programme would be ‘substantial’ compared to other stock rationalisation programmes.
‘I would see it being broken up into lots,’ he said. ‘The ideal lot size is between 200 and 300 properties – which is the number we find most strongly appeals to the market.
‘Genesis will need to make sure there is a significant competitive process to achieve the best price.’
He said he expected many other social landlords to come forward with similar stock rationalisation programmes as they sought to achieve efficiencies.
‘In some local authority areas there are more than 40 different social landlords operating, which is absolutely bonkers,’ he added.