Retirement homes specialist McCarthy & Stone is upsizing its development pipeline to ease the pending “demographic time bomb”.
The company has placed 30 sites under offer since its financial year ended on 31 August, meaning it is close to securing a third of its planned 90 purchases for the current financial year.
Clive Fenton, chief executive of McCarthy & Stone, said the 90-sites target was up from 74 acquisitions last year.
It is part of the firm’s £2bn plan to increase its flats completion targets to 3,000 pa within four years. The company had previously planned to invest £1.5bn to achieve 2,500 homes pa.
It latest proposal is for a PRP Architects-designed 59 flats scheme on 2.3-acres at Buckhurst Hill (pictured), which it plans to submit later this year.
“We have looked at demand [for homes for over-65s] and it so undersupplied, said Fenton.
He added that there was “a demographic timebomb” as supply tightens against a rising life expectancy. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of over-65s in the UK will rise to 17.2m in 2033, from 11.4m in 2014.
McCarthy & Stone’s update came after it last week posted a five-fold increase in pretax profit in the year to 31 August, to £63.2m from £12.5m last year. Turnover jumped 25% to £387.8m.
At the same time it called on ministers to focus on addressing housing issues for the elderly and not just first-time buyers.
