Audley Retirement Villages is to double its portfolio to 2,400 flats to exploit demand for “baby boomer” retirement homes.
The Moorfield Group-backed company, which develops luxury villages for over-55s, with spas, gyms, restaurants and salons on site, aims to treble its £34m 2013 turnover to £100m by 2017.
It completed this week a purchase of the 112-bedroom Redwood Hotel in Bristol, which Knight Frank sold on behalf of Nama. Gaunt Francis has been hired to draw up plans to convert the building into a £50m, 120-flat development, bringing Audley’s total portfolio to 1,200 homes.
Chief executive Nick Sanderson said: “We are seeing a rapid increase in the number of baby boomers – those born since 1940 – who are demanding luxury lifestyles. This asset class will be an increasingly significant part of the property market.”
The latest acquisition and the expansion programme will be funded with “continued support from Moorfield matched by new bank facilities”, Sanderson added.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
