Newly merged provider reports 400 homes delivered to date via for-profit partnership

As the partners have previously set out, Habitare has the capital to develop new homes but lacks the resources to manage them, so under this operating lease Amplius manages the homes delivered.

The operating lease was previously in place with Longhurst Group and is now between Amplius and Habitare. Habitare entered a similar arrangement with Grand Union in 2022.

Within its 2024-25 financial results, Amplius said it has a “clear objective to provide more affordable homes” and the partnership ensures both parties can “achieve more together”.

In its results, the housing association – which owns and manages more than 39,000 homes across London, the Midlands, the East of England and South East – said that both parties have ensured that the rewards and risks of managing the homes were “balanced and fair”.

Rob Griffiths, deputy chief executive at Amplius, said in the results: “Working with Habitare, we can deliver more homes. We’re in control of the choice of development, the quality of place and homes, and the specifications.

“Our commercial motivation to provide services to Habitare was a recognition of the importance of growing revenue sources, diluting operating costs and managing risk, all in the pursuit of providing more new homes.

“While our development ambitions continue, we also have a strong team focused on customer and asset management. We can leverage this team operationally by offering their services to third parties that share our values. Financially, [the merger] improves our EBITDA MRI without incurring additional debt obligations.”

According to the results, Amplius invested £168m in new homes in 2024-25, a rise from £147.4m in the previous year, and saw its EBITDA MRI interest cover improve from 82.2 per cent to 97.8 per cent. It is targeting a figure of 148 per cent in 2025-26. 

The financial results for 2023-24 and 2024-25 were presented on a pro forma basis to reflect the merger of Longhurst Group and Grand Union through the application of merger accounting.

Prior to merger, Longhurst reported EBITDA MRI interest cover of 65.7 per cent in 2024, while Grand Union recorded the figure at 113.3 per cent.

The housing association delivered 896 homes during the 2025 financial year, a slight drop from 875 homes delivered in the previous year. The total includes 386 at affordable rent, 109 for social rent, 326 rent to buy and shared ownership homes, 69 intermediate rent homes and six for market rent.

Social Housing understands none of the homes started or completed during 2024-25 were through the Habitare partnership – they were all from the respective development programmes of Amplius and its two legacy organisations.

Amplius reported that by year-end it had 1,414 homes under construction.

The housing association posted a pre-tax surplus of £34.7m in 2024-25, almost triple the £13.1m achieved in the previous year.

Amplius said this was driven by “strong” sales of first tranche shared ownership homes, along with surplus from asset disposals and outright sales, although this was offset by “a high demand” on responsive repairs.

During the year the landlord generated £39.3m in income from selling 398 shared ownership homes.

Writing for Social Housing in March this year, Mr Griffiths said that to date the lease with Habitare had been “positive” for Amplius’ finances.

He also said that while the lease model was currently off balance sheet, this wasn’t a consideration or motivation in progressing with this approach and Amplius expected it would come on balance sheet from 2026.

This is because of accounting changes that will come into effect at the start of 2026 and will apply to Amplius’ financial results for 2026-27.

In Grand Union’s 2023-24 financial results, the landlord said its long-term deal with Habitare Homes initially saw the housing association manage 79 homes for key workers, and during the year this partnership extended.

In the results, Grand Union said Man Group had invested “even more money” in Milton Keynes across a range of affordable products including shared ownership homes managed by the housing association for the for-profit.

Meanwhile, in Longhurst Group’s 2023-24 financial statements, the housing association said it continues to work alongside other organisations, including Man Group.