Legal & General has launched Inspired Villages Group, a retirement housing operator targeting the development of 3,000 new homes over the next five years.
The operator, established with later-living developer English Care Villages, is Legal & General’s first investment into the retirement housing sector.
Inspired Villages currently has two schemes, in Warwick and Cheshire, comprising more than 300 homes and a GDV of around £110m.
Legal & General said it targeted the sector because of its undersupply, driven by the over 65s age group growing five times faster than the working age population.
Only 7,000 homes were delivered to the sector last year, which the company said makes it the most undersupplied area of the housing market.
Nigel Wilson, chief executive of Legal & General, said: “Despite the fact that the UK is a great place to invest, 30 years of chronic underinvestment have led to poor productivity, inadequate real wage growth, market failures and low economic growth. Later living is a classic example of underinvestment.”
Inspired Villages is expected to acquire several sites a year to create hubs with single-level homes surrounding amenities such as restaurants, gardens and gyms.
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