Plan aims to recycle capital and bring fresh investment into the sector

Sanctuary is consulting on selling 300 shared ownership properties to a for-profit provider owned by property firm William Pears Group.

sanctuary office

Sanctuary’s offices in Worcester

The 125,000-home provider, the largest housing association in the UK by turnover, has notified around 300 shared owners of the sale, which is intended to help free up capital for other purposes.

The homes will be sold to Pears’ for-profit provider MTD and will be managed by property services company Pinnacle Affordable Homes, now part of Hyde Group.

One affected shared owner Lynette Coleman, who lives in Canterbury, Kent told Housing Today said she was concerned about a mention of potential to changes and management fees in correspondence from Sanctuary. The provider said any costs will “remain in line with market rates and focused on delivering a higher level of service and accountability”, while service charges can only reflect actual costs.

A spokesperson for Sanctuary said: “Like many other housing associations, we continue to explore routes to recycle our capital and bring new investment into the sector, which includes the sale of some of our shared ownership homes.

“We are currently consulting with customers about the sale of around 300 shared ownership homes. If a sale does go ahead, the leases on the homes would remain unchanged, with customers retaining the right to challenge any potential increases.”

>> Read more: Drop in valuation of student properties pushes Sanctuary into deficit

The consultation comes after Sanctuary in its annual financial statements for 2024/25 said it was planning to sell 2,000 shared ownership homes in the year to 31 March 2026. It said it would do this in two transactions.

Sanctuary’s strategy comes amid wider moves in the sector to look at the sale of shared ownership homes to release capital. A group of social landlords, including Places for People, have been in discussions about potentially setting up a joint vehicle backed by an institutional investor to sell homes into.

Topics