But results are not directly comparable to previous years, says finance chief
Sage Homes has recorded a colossal 456% increase in turnover after becoming the primary delivery vehicle for the Sage Group.
Set up in 2017 by alternative asset manager Blackstone and private equity firm Regis, the group initially operated two for-proit registered providers, Sage Homes and Sage Housing, as subsidiaries.
However, last August, Sage Housing (SHL) was sold to a universities pension fund in a deal worth £405m and renamed Sparrow Shared Ownership Ltd.
In Sage Homes’ latest accounts, for the year to 31 December 2024, chief financial officer John Goodley explained how the remaining RP was “transformed into the primary delivery vehicle for the Sage Group, following the transfer of all remaining properties under construction and additional completed homes from Sage Housing Limited”.
As part of the sale process, a total of 4,500 completed homes and 4,500 homes under construction were transfered to Sage Homes from the organisation now known as Sparrow.
As a result of this, Goodley said, this year’s financial statements “are not directly comparable to prior periods”, with large jumps in income and operating profit.
Turnover stood at £306m in the year, compared with £55m in 2023, while operating profit was also up by a huge margin, from a deficit of £5m in 2023 to £43m last year.
However, the provider also recorded a pre-tax loss of £30m, the result largely of interest expenses and revaluation of interest rate caps.
Sage, which delivered its first home seven years ago, now claims to have been the largest provider of newly built affordable homes in England for four years in succession.
Having become the main delivery vehicle for the group, Sage Homes invested £353m to deliver 3,985 new affordable homes in the year, up from just 417 the year prior.
Earlier this month Sage announced Platform Housing Group’s Elizabeth Froude as its new chief executive.
>> See also: Can ‘for-profit’ providers rescue affordable housebuilding?
Outgoing CEO Mark Sater said in a note on its accounts: “This has been a significant year for Sage. We successfully took on the responsibility for managing all our homes ourselves and simultaneously continued to deliver sector-leading numbers of affordable new homes and were the largest provider of newly built affordable homes in England for the fourth consecutive year.
“The sale of SHL to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) in August 2024 was also a huge step for Sage and the sector, delivering much-needed new institutional investment into affordable housing.
“I am incredibly proud of our team’s hard work and innovation as they continue to put our customers at the heart of everything we do.”
In its accounts, Sage said the divestment to USS brought “significant new institutional investment to the sector, realising Sage’s ambition to facilitate movement of institutional capital into the affordable housing sector”. Sparrow now manages 3,080 shared ownership homes.
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