<p>Aster Group has set a target to build 2,980 new homes by the end of 2023 after delivering more than originally forecast during the year to March 2021.</p> <p>The housing association built 928 homes during its last financial year, almost 200 more than predicted at the beginning of the pandemic, it said. This was thanks to productivity levels picking up more quickly than anticipated.</p> <p>The number of homes built represents an investment of £160 million in new housing projects over the past 12 months. Of the total, 478 were for social or affordable rent and 339 for shared ownership, with the remaining 111 built for open market sale.</p> <p>This level of output is down on the <span>1,067 homes built the previous year, on an investment of more than £210 million.</span></p> <p><span>During the year to March 31 2021, Aster contracted sites in several new local authority areas for the business, including Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, and Cherwell, Oxfordshire. </span></p> <p><span>Its other key sites include its latest joint venture development with Vistry Homes – a 130-unit scheme at Kilnwood Vale, Horsham with </span>65 sales already agreed. And during the period it completed and handed over Chagford, a Community Land Trust (CLT) scheme …