Aster Group and Vistry Homes deal to build 1,400 homes

A joint venture between housing association Aster Group and Vistry Homes will deliver 1,359 new homes by 2024.

The partnership consists of five joint ventures across the south of England and represents a £167million investment from the two organisations.

More than a quarter of the homes will be for affordable tenures – 250 for affordable rent and 96 for shared ownership, with the rest for private sale.

Vistry Group was formed by Bovis Homes’ acquisition of Galliford Try’s housebuilding arm Linden Homes and the partnerships division of Vistry Partnerships, announced in January 2020.

To date, developments run between Aster and Vistry Homes have built more than 500 homes in the UK. The most recent joint venture to get underway is a 130-unit development in Kilnwood Vale, Horsham, West Sussex.

Amanda Williams, group development director at Aster Group, said: “We’ve set ourselves ambitious delivery targets and this partnership will play a vital role in meeting these goals.

“Joint ventures are an incredibly effective method of delivering homes and we actively look for potential partners – be they builders, other housing associations or local councils. The ability to pool resources and share risk makes them an ideal vehicle for getting large developments off the ground. I firmly believe that collaborative approaches to housebuilding like this are crucial if the sector is to deliver the homes the UK needs.”

Stephen Teagle, chief executive at Vistry Partnerships, said: ‘’Our joint venture partnership with Aster Group is making a real difference – enabling us to deliver more homes and more choice for customers. It is also generating important additional capacity to support more affordable homes.’’

Aster, which built 1,156 homes in the year to the end of March 2019, has a £2billion investment plan to deliver more than 10,000 homes over the next seven years. It operates a mixed delivery model which sees it build housing via Section 106 agreements, joint ventures and its own land-led schemes alongside a growing focus on community-led projects.

The housing association recently appointed former housing ombudsman Mike Biles as non-executive chairman. It posted turnover of £212m in the year-ending 31st March 2019 (up from £205m in 2018) and committed to one of its largest ever packages of estate investment, pledging to inject £55million into improvements to its existing portfolio during the current financial year.