Housebuilder confirms report of talks over £170m deal

Housebuilder Barratt has confirmed it is in talks about selling a portfolio of the loans it makes to its home-buying customers to a number of bidders.

The housebuilder issued a statement to the stock exchange this morning confirming that it is in the early stages of discussions regarding its “shared equity loans” portfolio.

The statement follows a story in the Financial Times which values the loan book at £170m. The portfolio contains loans it has made to its customers to help them buy its homes in the current tough lending environment.

The FT reports that the sale would only include the homes where it is the sole shared equity lender, and not the homes where it is in partnership with the government, under schemes such as HomeBuy Direct and First Buy Direct.

Barratt’s statement says: “Barratt confirms that it is in the early stages of looking at options to monetise part of its interest in this portfolio. There is no certainty that any transaction will be concluded.”

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