Coastal is a charitable housing association (also known as a social landlord or a community landlord) providing 6,000 homes in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, and Bridgend. We have been providing homes at low rents to local people in and around the Swansea area since the 1970s.
Most of the homes we provide and manage are let at what is known as a ‘social rent,’ which means they are determined within a formula set by Welsh Government and are less than what you would expect to pay a private landlord for a similar property in the local market. A much smaller number of homes are let as what is known as ‘intermediate rents,’ which means the rents are between a social rent and market rent. We don’t have any properties that are let at a market rent. This video gives more information about rent setting in Coastal.
We also build new homes, funded by a mix of government grants and private finance from banks and other funders.
Coastal does not have shareholders who take dividends from the business. This is often described as ‘not-for profit,’ but a more accurate term is probably ‘profit for purpose’ as we do make surpluses. These are reinvested into the homes we manage and services we provide. Additionally, we are required to maintain certain levels of surplus in our accounts as part of the agreements with private lenders.
We are based at offices on Swansea High Street, an area we have been invested in regenerating over many years. We have a long history of developing schemes with a mix of commercial premises and residential accommodation that brings homes, jobs and opportunities and leisure into city and town centres to help them thrive. Our commercial premises include offices, cafes, pubs, arts centres, restaurants, and shops.
In addition to renting homes to people and leasing premises to commercial businesses, we develop properties for sale through our dedicated home sales company Pennant Homes. We always offer affordable homeownership options like Help to Buy Wales when we develop homes for sale.
We are regulated by the Welsh Government.