11 minute read
Social care
Octopus Real Estate pays £100m for eight care homes
Real estate lender and investor Octopus Real Estate is acquiring eight new care homes from developer, LNT Care Developments, for more than £100 million.
In one of its biggest portfolio purchases to date, Octopus Healthcare Fund, managed by Octopus Real Estate, is acquiring five of the homes at practical completion and will forward fund construction of the remaining three homes over their 12-month build periods.
The eight homes are located in Wombourne, Nottingham, Wakefield, Cannock, Kidderminster, Swadlincote, Redditch and Salisbury, and will all provide full en suite wetrooms and facilities. Once complete, seven care homes will be let to Ideal Carehomes and one to Elmfield Care, each on a 35year lease. Ideal Carehomes is an existing Octopus Real Estate tenant, while Elmfield is a new ‘LNT care partnership’ operator formed by LNT with Elmfield’s directors.
Estate agent Knight Frank acted as selling agent for LNT Care Developments.
Chris Wishart, director of origination at Octopus Real Estate, City & County Healthcare has acquired complex care business Interserve Healthcare from Interserve Group, including its service delivery brands Advantage Healthcare and Strand Nursing.
Interserve Healthcare provides specialist care for adults and children living with a wide range of conditions in their own homes. It also provides a small amount of elderly homecare and agency services.
Based in Telford, Interserve Healthcare manages care packages for customers across England, Scotland and Wales. As well as said: “We are pleased to be working again with LNT, a developer with specialist knowledge in the sector, and of course with Ideal Carehomes, an experienced quality operator. Extending our relationship with both parties, in addition to Elmfield Care, is a key step in executing our strategy of funding modern care homes with robust fundamentals.”
Dermot Callinan, group director of LNT Care Developments, added: “We pride ourselves on using the LNT Way to find the best sites with continuously evolving build design to create efficiencies in the operational model, which in turn ensures high levels of profitability and regulatory compliance, as well as a homely quality care environment. We are pleased to have worked with Octopus Real Estate on a successful outcome and look forward to continuing our strong track record of care home development with a substantial number of sites in the pipeline.”
Nick Kempster, healthcare agency and development at Knight Frank, commented: “We are seeing an increased flight to quality from operators and investors within the elderly care sector, particularly as the pandemic has highlighted the undersupply of future-proofed assets and the need for further development within the sector. LNT leads the way in providing top-ofthe-range facilities and innovation with their developments, and we were pleased to advise them on the sale of the portfolio and facilitate a successful outcome for both vendor
and purchaser.” services commissioned by clinical commissioning groups, Interserve delivers a combination of selffunded, insurance-funded and casemanaged care services.
In a statement City & County Healthcare said Interserve Healthcare fits with its strategy to acquire community care businesses to which it can add financial and technical resources to help growth.
Interserve Healthcare adds to City & County Healthcare’s existing complex care brands ICCM, SCP Complex and Total Community Care.
Social care
Civitas acquires complex needs provider Cream Care Group
Civitas Investment Management, an impact investor acting on behalf of institutions around the world, has acquired Cream Care Group, which provides person-centred care for people with special needs in its five homes.
Taunton-headquartered Cream Care cares for people with complex needs who require a tremendous amount of care and support. The people their services provide a home for often have severe or profound learning disabilities and high care needs.
Connell Consulting supplied investor commercial due diligence. Grant Thornton provided a multiservice offering and hands-on support throughout the transaction.
Kingsley Healthcare opens new £12m luxury care home in Brackley
Kingsley Healthcare has opened a new £12 million luxury care home in Brackley, Northamptonshire, its 31st home, which features en suite bedrooms, a cinema room, library, café, hairdressing salon, lounges and conservatory, and outside spaces including a sensory garden.
The home was designed by Leamington Spa-based Rickett Architects and built by Coventrybased Deeley Construction. It was opened by South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom and the Mayor of Brackley, Councellor Christopher Cartmell.
Home manager Sheena Croston said: “I am thrilled by the positive feedback I have had from everyone who has visited the home. Once Covid has gone away, we will be eager to build even stronger relationships with local groups and organisations and invite them into the home. It is important for us and our future residents that the home becomes a central part of the community.”
Muj Malik, Kingsley’s chief investment officer, added: “We are looking forward to serving the community of Brackley. The home will be a great anchor for us to grow in the Midlands. I am incredibly proud of our team who have got the home ready to welcome our first residents at such a difficult time.”
Brackley Care Home is one of a pipeline of next-generation nursing homes Kingsley is rolling out across the country, with the next ones opening in Olney in Buckinghamshire.
Daya Thayan, chief executive of Kingsley: “We are proud to be a family-owned company and have jealously guarded our family values as we have grown. Every one of our homes has to be of a standard that we would want for our own family. In addition to providing luxury care facilities, Brackley Care Home is also delivering well-paid jobs.
Social care
Eden Futures announces 2021 developments
Social care provider Eden Futures has revealed its development plans for next year, after opened three additional supported living services in 2020.
Eden Futues has supported adults with learning disabilities, challenging behaviour, enduring mental ill health and autism across northern England and the Midlands for the past 25 years. The company stated that the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed its project development, but in the next 12 months it will build and open nearly 70 apartments and specialist bungalows.
David Whittock, director of service development at Eden Futures said: “As with other organisations, we’re having to adapt to the pandemic, accepting that it is here to stay for some time. Despite this challenging national situation, there remains a need for more specialist supported living services to be built in communities.
“To date we’ve helped some 652 people across 171 sites to live in their own home in the community, working alongside them and their relatives in collaboration with developers, commissioners, landlords and health professionals.
“We currently have six schemes OakNorth Bank has lent £26.3 million to real estate investment manager Frogmore to develop a 35-bedroom specialist dementia care home in Westminster.
This is the second of four specialist care homes that Frogmore is developing alongside specialist operator Loveday. The first care home, Chelsea Court Place, is open, fully operational, and currently at 100% capacity with a waiting list. under construction in Hull, Derby, Chesterfield and Newark, and are discussing new sites in Leeds with local authorities and housing providers. Across these seven locations we’ll be creating more than 200 full-time jobs.”
Eden Futures’ two Hull developments, which are due for completion towards the end of January, includes 13 apartments Frogmore has two more central London care homes in the pipeline. The company says all its homes have luxury facilities such as a cinema and library room, a spa and private dining room, with significantly more staff per resident than the industry norm. Frogmore’s chief operating officer and group treasurer Andy Rogers said: “Over the last 15 years, the percentage of people diagnosed with dementia in Westminster has increased Artist’s impression of the new Newark service
and eight specialist bungalows. In Chesterfield six apartments and six specialist bungalows are being constructed, while in Newark, 12 apartments and four specialist bungalows are being built, for people who require physical adaptions with built-in assistive technology, with a due date of autumn next year.
Whittock added: “Our ongoing by 32%, yet despite this, the borough has the second-lowest number of registered beds for dementia, with only three beds for every 100 patients. There is therefore a clear need for new specialist dementia care homes in the borough which is why we’re delighted to be breaking ground on this new project and are grateful to OakNorth Bank’s ongoing support.”
Damien Hughes, senior property finance director at OakNorth, investment is important so that people with learning disabilities, mental ill-health and autism can live in appropriate settings and receive the care and support they need. We continue to work closely with the NHS, developers, and registered housing providers to achieve this, to meet growing demand and reduce the number of people detained in
Frogmore borrows £26.3m from OakNorth for Westminster care home
unsuitable accommodation.” added: “We’ve now worked with the team at Frogmore on several projects and despite care homes being a new area for the business, it has already proven with its first site in Chelsea Court Place, that it has a clear understanding of what members and their families are looking for. Frogmore’s chosen partner for this portfolio, Loveday, has enviable experience in this area, and together, they’re building a strong portfolio offering invaluable support to those they care for.”
Social care
Schroders and Civitas Investment Management’s fund announces first completions
The first five projects funded by the Social Supported Housing Fund (SoHo), set up by Schroder Real Estate and Civitas Investment Management (CIM), have been completed and handed over to their housing association tenants and residents.
These two companies stated that they have many more contracted UK projects, with developments completing every month.
The SoHo fund held a second closing in September taking the total equity capital raised to £100 million.
The strategy of the SoHo fund is to forward-fund the development of around 2,000 UK homes, creating an institutional portfolio of new purpose-built specialist housing Accrington-based healthcare provider, National Care Group (NCG) has acquired Steps Residential Care in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, for £2.5 million.
Established in 1999, Steps Residential Care is a CQC registered care home for people requiring nursing or personal care for learning disabilities and physical disabilities. It employs 58 staff members and caters for a maximum of 26 service users. The business comprises a total of 26 single bedrooms spread across five adjacent properties which each have a dining room, a lounge, a modern kitchen with a breakfast and lounge area, and outdoor space.
Steps Residential Care was sold by Anna Brown, who decided to sell in order to retire. Brown said: “Having spent a significant amount of my life dedicated to developing the services, individuals we support, and staff, I felt the time was right to hand over the baton. I spent a long time looking for an organisation which, I felt, most closely mirrored the ethos and standards I have worked units that provide safe, lifelong homes for adults with severe learning disabilities and significant mental health conditions.
Prior to investment by the fund, the sites will already have planning consent and be pre-let on long-term leases. The rental obligations are 100% funded by the local authorities in which the residents are located and are ultimately paid by the UK central government as part of its statutory obligation under The Care Act 2014.
CIM, the impact investment manager which founded and also acts as investment advisor to Civitas Social Housing REIT, is overseeing the development of the properties.
Robin Hubbard, head of real by, but could take the organisation into the next chapter. When NCG approached me, I was pleased and comforted that Steps would be in safe hands to carry on the good work achieved over the last 22 years. I have found the NCG management and support teams attentive and professional, and I look forward to estate capital at Schroders, said: “It is very pleasing to see the fund’s strategy become a reality with the completion, delivery and occupation of the first set of purpose-built homes. They will enhance their residents’ quality of life significantly, and their social impact will be independently measured and reported.
“‘Additionality’ is an important aspect of the fund and, with our now-proven ability to successfully industrialise the development process in a timely and cost-effective manner for the public sector, while seeking to achieve an attractive riskadjusted return for investors, we believe this is a win-win for all the stakeholders involved.” seeing Steps continue to thrive.”
NCG provides support services to vulnerable adults throughout the UK. The company’s group finance director, David Rowe-Bewick, said: “The acquisition of Steps Residential Care strengthens our presence in South Yorkshire and is an obvious fit with our own organisation as we
Andrew Dawber, group director at CIM, added: “The UK has a severe shortage of specially-designed homes for working age adults with severe and complex care needs. Both the public and the private sectors have an important role to play in providing additional housing, and we are committed to doing our bit in partnership with Schroders.
“These housing projects, which were funded from last October, were a result of the collaboration between local authorities, developers, care providers, housing associations and SoHo. We hope that they will set the standard for proactive collaboration in creating high-quality housing for people
National Care Group acquires Yorkshire care home
Steps Residential Care in Rotherham
with lifetime care needs.” look to extend our support services to an ever-increasing number of vulnerable people. As we look to the future, we remain focused on further expansion both from acquisitions and organic growth.”
The sale was facilitated by specialist business property advisor Christie & Co.
