Troubled property development company Home Holdings has put another raft of HMOs onto the market in a bid to shore up losses.

Part of Home REIT, the firm was set up as an investment trust landlord to provide housing for homeless people but has since run into trouble after allegedly inflating the value of its stock and is now offloading swathes of its portfolio.

The firm has been dogged by tenants’ complaints and failed rent payments, a negative short-seller’s report, a financial squeeze and  falling stock prices.

The plan was to buy residential properties and lease them at affordable rents to charities and public bodies.

It raised £740 million and went on to quickly source and invest the proceeds into a portfolio of more than 1,000 sheltered accommodation properties, which were let out to 126 charities, housing associations and local authorities.

Vulnerable

At the end of 2022 a group of shareholders claimed the company had misled the investment market by letting some of the properties to tenants who were not vulnerable and would not be eligible for Housing Benefit payments.

The company vigorously denied the allegations. Tenants also complained about the living conditions in some of the properties.

The Financial Conduct Authority launched a probe into the FTSE 250 firm in February, 18 months after short seller Viceroy Research sounded the alarm over the quality of its tenants and value of its housing.

By the end of March, the company reported that it had sold 456 properties, raising £79.7 million and had exchanged on another 252. In April, the firm sold another 65 properties for £15.9 million.

The latest houses going up for auction next month are in Corby where a number need significant work to make them habitable; one – a three-bedroomed terrace on the Kingswood Estate in Reigate Walk – has a guide price of £75,000 but was last purchased for £185,000 in 2021.

LandlordZONE has approached Home REIT for comment.