The growing care home and retirement living market

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June 15, 2020

Over the last 30 years the retirement housing market has evolved, providing people with an alternative to mainstream housing and care homes. Older people are living longer than ever before due to advances in medicine and healthier lifestyles, also older people can manage easier in residential settings than previous generations. Therefore a traditional care home setting might not be the answer to many people over a certain age and there are now other alternatives than perhaps there were years ago…

Retirement housing provides people with an alternative to private residential households and traditional residential care households. Paul Brundell of Brundell Property states “Retirement housing offers people a choice as it targets older people who either require specialist housing support or care now or will do in the future. These people still wish to keep their independence and they want to feel a sense of community within the residential housing, often activities are a key feature of today’s retirement housing developments.” The main point of the retirement housing developments is that the occupants either own or rent their property but share all communal facilities that the development offers its residents.

The retirement housing sector is growing and is largely driven by the Baby Boomers. It is thought that by 2027 one in five of the population will be aged 65 or over and by 2050 this figure will become one in four. It is also thought that people will generally live longer as well. However the older people get the more chance there is that they are living with either a disability or a Limiting Long Term Illness (LLTI). These illnesses do not warrant the person to move into a care home but they would struggle to cope within their own homes. The illnesses limit what the person can do on a day to day basis and it is thought that around three million could suffer in this way by 2025. Today there are options for older people, such as housing with support, rather than staying in their current home or moving into a care home.

The Baby Boomers are also more affluent than previous generations, largely due to the equity that they hold within their homes. This along with their pensions offers older people choices that their parents or grandparents simply did not have. The Baby Boomers can choose a better standard of living when it comes to their retirement and where they choose to live if they want to move out of their family home. They still want to remain independent so much so that The Colour Report of 2015 showed that 77% of Baby Boomers stated that living life to the full is more important to them than leaving an inheritance for their children. Developers are taking these figures on board and creating developments that meet the needs of the people reaching retirement age. They are building retirement villages that have amazing on site facilities and are finished to very high specifications. However there is a huge gap in the market for high end developments for those people that are wealthy and therefore fall outside of state funded support. Paul Brundell of Brundell Property believes that with many of the Baby Boomers now reaching retirement age the gap is only going to increase.

Countries such as Australia and America have a far more mature retirement living market than we do here in the UK. More than 5% of the over 65’s in these countries live in what we call Housing with Care compared to just 0.6% in the UK. Around 33% of the over 55’s have considered moving to a smaller property, or downsize, within the last five years but only as little as 7% actually moved due to the severe lack of suitable place for them to move to. So more high end developments need to be built to cater for the over 55’s, otherwise there will be a chronic undersupply within just a matter of years. Paul Brundell states that “an undersupply would mean people staying in their current homes and not freeing up much needed family homes within their areas. This is a shame as changes to pensions now allow pensioners to access thousands of pounds of their retirement funds, allowing them to fund the high-end lifestyle that they want into their retirement years.”

So what are the benefits of retirement living? Firstly it offers the over 55’s more independence and more choice. It allows them to plan for their later years, which they may not be able to do if left within their current home. Secondly it helps to combat loneliness. At present there are around 3.5million people aged over 65 living on their own, this can not only affect their wellbeing but also create social isolation. Living within a retirement living complex helps reduce the feelings of isolation and provides a sense of community, which many people living alone yearn for. Also RICS believes that there could be as many as 2.6million homes within the UK that can be released back into the market if the over 55’s had a choice about where they could move to. Therefore the Housing with Care sector needs to expand at a much bigger rate than it is currently doing so otherwise the supply is going to struggle to keep up with the ever increasing older generation.

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Plans submitted for 85-bed care home in East Grinstead

January 13, 2023

Brundell Property Group has submitted an outline planning application to build a new purpose built 85-bed care home with a variety of facilities in West Hill, East Grinstead. The care home proposals will contribute towards the identified requirement in the area for a further 665 care units by 2030. The plans include 85 care and accessible studios with state-of-the art facilities within the complex. With 1.2 hectares of land, it will also provide outdoor areas and communal gardens. Other modern facilities include a cinema, spa and treatment rooms, as well as a café, restaurant, and village hall to offer spaces for various activities. All of which is to create a feeling of community and wellbeing for residents. Brundell Property Group is looking for a partner to develop and operate the scheme. Find out more by contacting the team! E: info@brundellproperty.co.uk

The Revival of the High Street

By Fiona Davies • June 14, 2021

This time last year there was doubt that the UK high street would survive much longer. It was already struggling due to the rise of online shopping and then suddenly Covid struck. A record number of shops closed their doors for good, some stores that had been a significant presence on our high streets for over one hundred years. Things were looking rather glum for high streets across the UK but suddenly their fortunes seem to be changing. High street stores are being replaced with crazy golf courses, gyms and student flats. However some areas of the UK are replacing offices and empty stores with retirement homes. One such development has been built near Clapham and Balham high streets, a purpose built apartment block aimed at the older generation. This development is not a one off either as there are many planned up and down the country, bringing hope for regeneration of the high street. Local planners hope that if more people come into town centres across the UK then regeneration can flourish. Regeneration is not the only upside, it also offers much needed housing for the over 65’s who can live in urban locations rather than on the edges of towns or cities. Also these over 65’s are often downsizing from larger properties and have an awful lot of housing equity to their name, equity that they will most probably spend on the high street. Most people will have noticed that the UK high street is not what it once was. Many large shopping centres are now sitting empty and are often an eye sore. Plans are now underfoot to convert these empty shopping sites into another use. Last year saw the demise of House of Fraser, a department store with sites on high streets up and down the UK. One such former site in Reading has been converted into a crazy golf course, a bowling alley and also a food hall. The same has happened to a former BHS store on Oxford Street in central London, this has now been converted into a food hall and a golf centre. However for these new busines sites to thrive there needs to be more housing sitting alongside them. Traditionally retirement homes were located on the fringes of towns and cities within gated communities. This is set to change as developers are looking at redeveloping office and retail sites that are currently vacant to change their use for the over 65’s. During the height of the pandemic developers said that there was a large jump in inquiries for retirement housing, largely due to older people feeling very lonely and isolated. A thinktank called the Social Market Foundation believes that retirement housing could play a key role in the regeneration of our high streets, especially if there is a reduced need for office and retail space after the pandemic. Between January and June 2021 there were 11,120 closures of chain stores whilst only 5,119 actually opened. The closures were double the amount of the period the year before. If these stores remain permanently closed then the footfall on the high street will inevitably decline. Therefore it seems that the idea of converting parts of our high streets in retirement housing might actually be the saviour of our high streets across the UK.

The private student accommodation boom

June 15, 2020

Times have changed for students in recent years. Gone are the days when your student hall room boasted a narrow single bed, MDF desk, cheap economy carpet and the fight for the bathroom in the morning. Today’s 18 year old student can look forward to a life of luxury in comparison. In the last ten years purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) has sprung up across the country, offering today’s student their own personal studio flat where they have their own kitchen and bathroom within their room… However this luxury student lifestyle comes at a cost, especially if you study in the capital. Studios in London have hit a high of £568 a week for a premium studio and is currently let out but this is significantly more than the majority pay. Although London has the most expensive student halls in the country there is also many hundreds of other student halls being built across the country. In fact 287 new purpose built student halls were opened in time for the new 2017 academic year. Sheffield, along with London, saw the greatest increase of private stock. Investors, unsurprisingly, are rushing to back this sector with an estimated £5.3billion to be invested in 2017, 17% more than in 2016. However developers are finding that it is becoming more and more difficult to find the land to build student blocks on with some saying that certain towns and cities have reached saturation point. In fact the growth of student housing in the UK is determined more by the constraints on finding a site to build on rather than a lack of students to fill the rooms. However the purpose built student accommodation market continues to be one of the most attractive markets in real estate for investors. Overseas buyers are bringing an influx of capital due to the value of foreign currencies against the British pound. Investors have come from Russia, China, Singapore and the Middle East this year. The UK student accommodation sector is also resilient to concerns in regards to Brexit, just as it did during the economic downturn, which is very attractive to overseas investors. The sector has grown 37% since 2014. Paul Brundell from Brundell Property said “We have seen a massive growth in purpose built student accommodation and we will continue to see this growth as long as it stays the main choice for all university students.” Councils across the country are also keen for these purpose built student accommodation blocks to be built, as they free up private rental sector homes for families. The introduction of PBSA into a number of locations across the UK could see around 77,000 homes come back on the market for families, significantly contributing to housing targets for councils. The student blocks being constructed do not just offer studios within them but also en-suite pods and cluster flats, for those student who don’t mind sharing a bathroom. However all of these blocks offer something luxurious to today’s student, such as gyms, cinemas, cafes, roof top nightclubs and some even have a concierge. So who is staying in these student blocks? A lot of rooms are rented by wealthy overseas students, who regard the UK as offering high standards in education and with the emergence of English as the international language of business, an education here is very appealing. The UK now has the second largest number of enrolled international students in the world, in some of the top UK universities there are as many as 30% of the students that are foreign. It is these students who are willing to pay any price so that they live the UK university experience. This increase in international, along with domestic, students means that universities need to offer high quality student accommodation, which PBSA offers. PBSA allows international students to shop around for accommodation before they arrive in the UK as they can view and book all of their accommodation online. In 2016 the UK attracted 112,000 full time students from within the EU and over 285,000 from other foreign countries. It is thought that international student numbers will increase by 6% per year over the next three years. In fact Chinese student numbers have nearly doubled over the last ten years to 14,000 students. So which towns and cities are in the strongest demand? Top of the list is Bath due to strong demand characteristics, good prospects for rental growth, high occupancy levels and strong rents. In second place is Birmingham, followed closely by Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh and Exeter. Three new cities moved into the top ten cities in demand for student housing, namely Exeter, Guildford and Leeds. Liverpool however has slipped down the rankings due to worries that the city may be oversupplied. Britain’s towns and cities have had their streetscape changed forever due to this boom in PBSA and the trend does not look as if it is going to slow down anytime soon.