S&P confirms continued ‘A’ rating with a stable outlook for Thrive Homes

Thrive Homes has retained their ‘A’ credit rating with a stable outlook for a second year from ratings agency Standard & Poors (S&P).  

On 25 March 2021, S&P stated that “Strong demand for shared-ownership sales, higher first tranche sale percentages, and a successful tenure conversion program resulted in more revenue at better margins than we had previously projected, which strengthened Thrive's financial metrics. We think the group's operations will continue to benefit from solid demand for its core social housing services over the next few years.”

Based in the South East of England, Thrive is focused on expanding within Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, which has some of the highest house prices in England. The Group benefits from sound economic fundamentals because its general needs rents, which include social, affordable, and intermediate, are set at 58% of market rent. Average annual population growth of 0.4% (Office for National Statistics data) and a very low vacancy rate of 0.7% both support demand for Thrive's general needs rents.

Thrive’s Director of Resources, Mark Farrar said: “We are delighted to receive an ‘A’ credit rating with a stable outlook for the second year running, this affirms our financial capacity and resilience and also provides confidence in our strategy and future growth ambitions.

“We pride ourselves on being an agile business with the ability to adapt to challenges that come our way none more apparent than those successfully managed over the past 12 months.”

The stable outlook reflects S&P’s view that the strong underlying performance of Thrive's social housing portfolio can support future planned increases in maintenance spend as Thrive progress it’s environmental and sustainability aspirations.

An ‘A' issue rating was also confirmed on the £125 million senior secured bond issued by Thrive Homes Finance PLC, Thrive's funding vehicle. Thrive Homes Finance was set up for the sole purpose of issuing bonds and lending the proceeds to Thrive, and is a core subsidiary of the Thrive group.