Legal & General

L&G enters retirement housing market



Legal & General (L&G) has announced the establishment of Inspired Villages Group – formed out of English Care Villages – an operator and developer of later living accommodation.


This follows L&G’s acquisition of the assets of two joint ventures between English Care Villages and Places for People, for around £40m.

Inspired Villages is set to accelerate the evolution of the retirement housing sector with around 3,000 new, quality homes expected to be built over the next five years.

The UK continues to have a chronic shortfall of over 100,000 homes per year.

According to L&G’s Last Time Buyers’ report, there are 3.3 million last-time buyers looking to rightsize in the UK.

The over-65s age bracket is growing five times faster than the working age population, yet only 7,000 homes were delivered to the sector last year, making it the most under-supplied area of the housing market in the UK.

Inspired Villages is currently running two schemes, one in Warwick and the other in Cheshire. 

Combined they comprise over 300 homes with a GDV of around £110m.

With L&G’s long-term funding, Inspired Villages expects to acquire several sites per year, with single-level homes starting from £250,000.

“Despite the fact that the UK is a great place to invest, 30 years of chronic underinvestment has led to poor productivity, inadequate real-wage growth, market failures and low economic growth”, said Nigel Wilson, CEO of L&G.

“Later living is a classic example of underinvestment; it has now been added to Legal & General's £15bn UK direct investment programme."

Jamie Bunce, CEO of Inspired Villages, added: “With Legal & General’s investment in Inspired Villages, we will create communities across the whole of the UK where people want to live.

“We will reinforce the family ethos with support and services provided as required.”



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