Aster Group maintains consistent delivery pipeline

Housing association Aster Group delivered 984 new homes in the year ending March 2025. 

Of these 984 homes, 863 were affordable, including 156 available for social rent, 327 for affordable rent and 380 available via shared ownership. The remaining 121 were delivered via Aster’s joint venture projects with partners including Thakeham and Vistry Homes. 

This reflects a consistent performance for the business, like its previous financial year during which it delivered 997 homes, 922 of which were affordable. 

Notably, this year saw Aster announce a £58m joint venture with Thakeham to deliver 120 homes in Burgess Hill built to net zero carbon standards - expected to be the largest of its kind in mid Sussex. 

The Group also exchanged contracts to deliver its 200th Community Land Trust (CLT) home. Following agreement with Arundel CLT in West Sussex for 27 homes and Transition Homes in Dartington, Devon for 39 homes, Aster has cemented its position as the leading housing association provider of CLT partnerships.

 The business also progressed its Strategic Partnership with Homes England, through which it is set to deliver 1,500 homes by March 2028. This was complemented by the launch of a £4.2m framework for development consultants and surveyors, to identify and tackle region-specific delivery challenges across the communities Aster operates in.

 Amanda Williams, Chief Investment Officer at Aster Group, said: “Like most in the sector, we’ve quite rightly had to focus our efforts and finances on our existing homes this year. Despite that and challenges with planning, build costs and skills shortages, we’re proud to have maintained a robust delivery programme that is building vitally needed new affordable homes at a consistent rate year on year. We’re also really pleased to have kept up momentum in our CLT programme seeing us progress a number of community-led housing projects which are shaped by and for those local communities.

 “Our focus now turns to identifying how the government’s new affordable homes programme can best be deployed. The clarity and long-term certainty it provides brings an unprecedented opportunity for the sector to be a key enabling partner to deliver these new homes and scale up alternative delivery methods like CLTs. This could be game changing in fostering the collaboration and community buy-in need to meet demand for affordable housing.”