Funder view: Santander targets growth after doubling lending to £3bn in 2025

Santander has been operating in the housing sector for more than 25 years and lends to just over 100 housing associations across the UK.

Together, these provide more than 1.9 million homes. Among the bank’s deals in 2025 were a £310m refinance for Peabody, a £150m refinance for Eastlight Community Homes and a £50m loan to Stonewater.

Mr Whelan says that Santander is focused on further growth in 2026, but declines to place a figure on the bank’s lending ambition.

“We have a strong pipeline of deals,” he says. “There’s no shortage of appetite from us, and we are out there looking to do more. If the demand is there, we’ve got the appetite to do it. We respond to what the market wants.”

He adds: “We’re looking to grow and support new and existing clients in meeting their needs.”

Long-term view

Santander has seen more demand from the sector for term loans due to the price volatility in the capital markets, Mr Whelan says, and is particularly looking to deploy more of this type of product.

He explains: “We’re looking to grow our long-term commitment to the sector in terms of increasing our five and 10-year debt commitments and longer, if need be. We’re here for the long term.

“But if a client just wants short-term funding, great, we’ll do that. If they want term debt, great, we’ll do that. We’re looking to support and assist them where we can.”

When asked why the sector remains attractive, Mr Whelan cites the record of no losses, guidance from the regulator, housing associations’ sense of social responsibility and their “experienced and well-managed teams”.

He continues: “There are, because of the low-risk nature of [housing], capital benefits to banks in… lending to the sector, which means we can price it cheaper than we would if it was a commercial for-profit loan. So, there’s benefits around that. But it’s just a good sector.”

Investment in homes

Jane Johnstone, head of social housing at Santander, also emphasises that the sector’s social impact is attractive for the bank.

“The sector is doing the right things in providing homes for people and improving the stock and the quality of its homes,” she says.

As such, Santander does not place requirements on what housing associations spend their loan proceeds on, although providers may well choose to direct these towards energy efficiency retrofit projects.

Santander is not one of the three banks (and four funders) that have partnered with the National Wealth Fund (NWF) to offer specific retrofit loans backed by government guarantees.

To date, the NWF has committed guarantees totalling £1.3bn to the sector across four partnerships, including three banks – Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest – and funding aggregator The Housing Finance Corporation.

Mr Whelan says that Santander speaks to the NWF, but that it is in a “good position” regarding lending to the sector without government guarantees.

He adds: “I think that’s a nice position to be in. So, we haven’t needed to [partner with the NWF], but we don’t preclude using it if something comes up where we would need it.”

Lending to for-profits

On the topic of for-profits – seen by many as a key part of future delivery at a time of continued financial challenge for many not-for-profit landlords – Mr Whelan likewise expresses openness to future opportunity.

Santander currently only lends to regulated not-for-profit registered providers, and does not lend to for-profit providers, but Mr Whelan tells Social Housing that it may be open to changing its position.

“[For-profits are] an evolving sector from a regulatory and structural perspective,” he says.

“We are open to reviewing funding opportunities on a case-by-case basis, however we need to ensure that funding arrangements are structured to protect tenant impact versus delivering commercial objectives in a for-profit environment.”