Large London landlords reveal fall in turnover amid lower sales in ‘challenging market’

Its sales income, excluding joint ventures, fell by 30 per cent year-on-year to £92m. Around two-thirds of this revenue was from shared ownership sales (£60m) and the remainder was from open market transactions.

However, both landlords saw an improvement in their bottom lines in the nine-month period.

Clarion’s pre-tax net surplus, before fair value adjustments, rose by 17 per cent year-on-year to £119.6m. It was boosted by a £21.4m rise in surplus from disposals.

However, Clarion’s underlying development surplus fell by £8.2m to £1.5m, due to lower volumes and lower margins. The association said this reflected the “wider challenges in the housing market”.

The group completed 1,000 new homes in the year to date, with 780 (78 per cent) being “affordable” tenures. Clarion has a current pipeline of 21,978 homes, up from 20,304 at the same point last year.

L&Q reported a near tripling of its post-tax surplus to £138m, compared to £50m in the same period last year.

However, in the previous financial year its surplus was dented by a £120m accounting impact from the sale of its strategic land business.

On an operating basis in the latest nine-month period, L&Q’s surplus fell by 12 per cent to £299m.

Operating costs from managing its homes rose by 10 per cent to £478m.

The group reported 1,506 completions – including joint ventures – in the nine months, up from 1,410 the prior year. Of these 1,174 were classified as “social housing tenures” (78 per cent), with the rest market tenures. 

Last month, L&Q completed the sale of 3,500 homes to newly formed landlord SettleParadigm. The deal is part of L&Q’s ongoing stock rationalisation programme to focus on its core areas of London and Manchester. 

L&Q is also hoping to sell its £1.2bn private rented sector business, Metra Living, which it put on the market last November. 

In the latest update, Ed Farnsworth, group finance director at L&Q, said “good progress” had been made on the sale, without giving further detail.