News

Gatehouse Bank reports strong growth and robust financial performance

Gatehouse Bank has announced its full year results for the year ending 31 December 2022.

Key highlights:

Financial results in 2022

  • Post-tax profit for the year amounted to £8.1 million.
  • The Bank achieved the milestone of over £1 billion of home finance, demonstrating considerable demand for its ethical-led, Shariah-compliant products.
  • Gross assets grew by 30% to £1.3 billion (2021: £1.03 billion).
  • Total regulatory capital increased by 8% to £112 million (2021: £103.5 million).
  • Moody’s Investors Service assigned Gatehouse Bank an investment grade credit rating with a long-term stable outlook based on its solid capital base, good liquidity profile and role as a growing, leading Shariah-compliant Bank.

Surpassed £1 billion in Residential Property Finance assets

  • Home Finance offering for UK residents, UK expats and international residents saw robust growth, with total balances increasing by 40% year-on-year to £1.065 billion (2021: £762m).
  • Launch of green home finance products bolstered portfolio growth alongside the Bank’s online Decision in Principle tool, introduced to streamline the home finance customer journey.

Savings deposits surpassed £1 billion

  • Total deposits grew by 28% to £1.2 billion (2021: £915 million)[1].
  • Growth driven by newly launched savings app and strong product offering in the ethical savings space. This includes the Bank’s Woodland Saver accounts, which offer competitive rates and plant a tree on behalf of the customer for every account opened or renewed.

Gatehouse Bank is further established as a leader in the Build to Rent sector

  • The Bank increased its equity stake in Ascend Estates Limited, which is a leading property management provider. Remaining shares were then purchased in April 2023, taking the Bank’s holding to 100%.
  • The Ascend property platform now manages over 8,000 properties for rent and all services for Build-to-Rent now sit under one roof.
  • Institutional Build to Rent funds showed strong performance, with second PRS fund, DifRent, holding an average tenant occupancy of 98% and third PRS fund, Start Living, forward funding the construction of 622 homes around the UK as of December 2022.

Delivering on the Bank’s ESG commitments

  • Gatehouse continued to align to the UK’s goal of achieving net zero by 2050 and remained operationally carbon neutral.
  • The Bank’s fundraising efforts for its charity of the year, FareShare, resulted in over £11,000 raised. This enabled the charity to redistribute over 41,000 meals to those in need and provide support for 400 homeless people, 789 families with children and 248 community groups for the elderly.

Charles Haresnape, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, commented: “2022 was a significant year for Gatehouse Bank as we further developed our product offering, enhanced our digital first approach and surpassed the £1 billion milestone in both Retail Savings and Residential Property Finance assets.

“Our competitive savings products remained popular with new and existing customers, particularly our award-winning Woodland Saver accounts. We also relaunched our Easy Access products with a minimum deposit of £1 to encourage people to build healthy savings habits.

“The Bank enhanced its home finance offering through its green home finance range and advanced its customer centric strategy by launching an online Decision in Principle facility to streamline our home finance customer journey.

“Developments in our Build to Rent business and majority shareholding of Ascend have also helped further establish our position as a market leader in this sector.

“As a founding signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, we look forward to continuing to meet our sustainability targets and helping to bring our customers’ financial goals into closer alignment with the values they hold.

“More widely, our mission remains to ensure that our success as a business is increasingly synonymous with what is best for society, operating within the Shariah principles of fairness and transparency and helping to create a better future for all.”

2022 Business highlights:

Homebuyers

  • Green home finance products launched in Q2.
  • Building strong relationships with new intermediary partners, with more active brokers registered to introduce clients to the Bank.
  • Launched an online Decision in Principle facility in Q4 to streamline the home finance customer journey.
  • Direct to Consumer finance advisory team accounted for 34% of total 2022 originations.

Savers

  • Competitive products and a fully digital platform, bolstered by the launch of Gatehouse Bank’s mobile savings app. The Bank upheld high levels of customer satisfaction, with Gatehouse’s Savings Net Promoter Score standing at a strong +59 at the end of December 2022.
  • Easy Access Account and Easy Access Cash ISA were relaunched with a minimum deposit of £1 to encourage young savers to build healthy savings habits.
  • Woodland Saver accounts remained popular, reaching the milestone of over 20,000 trees planted in total at the end of 2022.

Build to Rent

  • Gatehouse Bank increased its equity stake in Ascend Estates Limited, which was brought to a 100% holding earlier this year. This significant property management company forms part of the end to end platform.
  • Joint venture with TPG Real Estate Partners, under the Start Living brand, performed well and has forward funded the construction of 622 homes across eight sites in locations around the UK.
  • The Bank continues to manage a fully established portfolio of single-family Build to Rent homes under the DifRent brand alongside cornerstone investor, Kuwait Investment Authority. Tenant occupancy remained high at an average 98%.

For the full 2022 Annual Report, please click here.


1. Certain balances for the year 2021 have been restated, with more information available in Note 2 of Gatehouse Bank’s Annual Report 2022.