Thirteen Housing Group's Shared Ownership Sales Collapse 44% in Just One Year..
Teesside Based Thirteen Housing Group Sells 127 Fewer Shared Ownership Homes as Turnover Falls £7.8m
9th October 2026
Shared ownership sales at one of the North East’s largest private housing corporations fell sharply during the last financial year, with Thirteen Housing Group completing just 160 sales compared with 287 the year before.
Thirteen’s latest annual accounts show that the sales of low-cost home ownership properties generated just £10.4 million pounds in turnover during 2025/26, down from £18.2 million in 2024/25.
That represents a fall of 127 homes — around 44% — in just one year, while sales income dropped by approximately £7.8 million.
Thirteen’s previous annual report confirms that 287 low-cost home ownership homes were sold during 2024/25, accounting for £18.2m of turnover, with the latest accounts revealing the figure subsequently fell to 160 homes and £10.4m of turnover in 2025/26.
Sales almost halve despite record housebuilding
The decline is particularly notable because it comes during what Thirteen describes as a record-breaking year for its wider development programme.
The housing association delivered 668 new homes during 2025/26, exceeding its target of 550 and beating the 650 delivered the previous year. Yet sales through its low-cost home ownership programme moved sharply in the opposite direction.
Thirteen describes shared ownership as a route onto the housing ladder for people unable to afford a suitable property outright. Buyers purchase a percentage of a property and pay rent to the housing association on the remaining share. Thirteen currently says purchasers can ordinarily buy between 10% and 75% initially.
Nevertheless, the scale of the reduction raises questions over the performance of one part of Thirteen’s development operation at a time when the organisation continues to invest heavily in building new properties & continues to face questions over its tax affairs.
Commercial housing arm remains in the red…
The sales figures are also significant when viewed alongside the performance of Thirteen Homes, the housing group’s subsidiary responsible for delivering homes for sale with Thirteen Homes recording an operating loss of £1 million pounds during 2025/26, compared with an £800,000 loss the previous year.
Its Howards Green development in Darlington continued to experience considerable delays, with only six sales completed during the financial year, generating turnover of £2.2m. Thirteen says the final sale and remaining contractual works are expected to be completed during 2026/27.
Activities outside of Thirteen’s core social-housing lettings operation produced an even bigger loss, with a £6.4m pound loss during 2025/26, compared with a loss of just £900,000 the year before, with Thirteen saying the deterioration was primarily caused by subsidiary losses and demolition costs.
Despite the fall in annual sales, Thirteen’s overall low-cost home ownership portfolio has continued to grow. Its previous accounts showed the organisation owning 1,613 low-cost home ownership properties at March 2025, up from 1,366 a year earlier.
The wider group also remained in a strong financial position, reporting turnover of £234.9 million and an overall surplus of £38.8 million for the 2025/26 financial year. However, those figures come against continued scrutiny of Thirteen’s tax arrangements and its charitable status, with critics questioning whether the structure means the organisation contributes less in Corporation Tax than a conventional commercial business would.
That debate has prompted calls for greater scrutiny of whether large housing associations operating substantial commercial and development activities should continue to benefit from charitable tax treatment, particularly at a time when public finances remain under pressure and businesses outside the charitable sector face Corporation Tax liabilities that help fund public services and infrastructure.
