News

Gatehouse Bank reports strong growth in strategically significant year

Gatehouse Bank has released its full year results for the year ending 31 December 2021.

Despite the continued headwinds created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bank’s focus on the expansion of its ethical product offering to assist homebuyers, landlords and savers resulted in an exceptional year of growth – with a record number of people choosing Gatehouse and pre-tax profits to £3.6m in 2021.

Key highlights:

  • Record number of Home Finance originations
    • Home Finance offering for UK residents, UK expat and international owner-occupiers and landlords saw robust growth with portfolio achieving 40% growth to £762m
    • Record number of Home Finance originations achieved
    • Growth driven by the launch of a series of higher finance to value products to assist UK home buyers with smaller deposits, as well as first time buyers
  • Development of award-winning Woodland Saver ethical Savings product line
    • Total deposits grew 28% to £897m
    • Growth driven by product innovations in the ethical savings space with the launch of our award-winning Woodland Saver product, which pledges to plant a tree for every account opened or renewed, whilst offering savers market-leading rates
    • 10,000 trees planted at woodland projects across the UK
  • Further establishing Gatehouse Bank as a leader in the Build to Rent sector
    • First PRS fund sold to Goldman Sachs for £150m in the first sale of its kind, further establishing Gatehouse Bank as a leader in this field
    • Third PRS fund launched in a £500m joint venture with Texas Pacific Group Real Estate, which will deliver 2,500 houses for rental to families across the UK
    • Institutional Build to Rent Funds showed strong performance with a tenant occupancy high of 99%
  • Profits in 2021
    • Record levels of profitability achieved, with our total pre-tax profit reaching £3.6m
    • Gross assets under management grew by 24% to £1.03bn (2020: £824.8m)
    • Income increased by 30% to £28.5m (2020: 22.7m)

Charles Haresnape, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, says: “In a year characterised by the ongoing challenge of the global pandemic, Gatehouse made strong progress, with the expansion of service lines translating to growth of our customer base and the achievement of a profitable return for the second year in a row.

“Product innovation was a key driver of growth in 2021 – with the introduction of our award winning Woodland Saver on the savings side of the business, as well as a series of higher finance to value products, resulting in us welcoming a record number of new Home Finance customers to the bank.

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

“As a founding signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, we look forward to continuing to develop our digital-first approach, expanding our offering to enable customers to bring their financial goals into ever closer alignment with the ethical and sustainable values they hold.

“More widely, our mission remains to work continuously to ensure that our success as a business is increasingly synonymous with what is best for society, helping to create a better future for all.”

Business highlights:

Homebuyers

  • Higher finance to value home finance products launched in the third quarter led to a significant increase in the number of home buyers engaging with Gatehouse Bank directly
  • Successful establishment of strong relationships with new intermediaries – with more active brokers registered to introduce clients to the Bank
  • Continued to work in partnership with Commercial Bank of Kuwait and Warba Bank as introducers for their clients wishing to acquire and finance property in the UK
  • Direct to Customer finance advisory team accounted for 30% of our total 2021 originations.

Savers

  • Competitive products and fully digital platform maintained high levels of customer satisfaction
  • Launch of ethical savings proposition helped to continue expanding customer base
  • Plans to further expand offering and introduce digital savings propositions to cater to wider demographic commenced with a view to expanding younger (under 30) customer base to 10%, up from 3% in 2021.

Investors

  • Ongoing strength of second fund maintained.

Build to Rent

  • Joint Venture with TPG Real Estate Partner of £500m to enable construction of up to 2,500 suburban, purpose-built family rental homes across the North and Midlands.
  • Initial Build to Rent scheme called Thistle, was sold to Goldman Sachs representing the first Single Family Unit sale of scale in the UK.

For the full 2021 Annual Report, please see here.