Retirement SPECIAL

retirementspecial
In association with
Retirement
SPECIAL
Contents
49
Foreword
by Adrian Jones of supplement sponsor PXS
51
McCarthy & Stone
Clive Fenton at the helm of a retirement living giant with
plans to grow much bigger
55
Round Table
An exclusive panel of the leading influencers in the sector
discuss the future of housing for older people
61
Churchill Retirement Living
Spencer McCarthy learnt at the feet of his father,
but is now leading the industry from the front
64
News
A round-up of the latest stories from around the
retirement living market
showhouse July 2014 |
47
We know you want a high
level of care for your clients
on retirement developments.
Our innovative approach of
limiting our Property Mangers
to 15 developments provides
unrivalled customer service
• Members of the ARHM & RICS
• Innovative approach to
retirement housing
• Specialist in retirement
housing
• Dedicated to putting
leaseholders first
retirementspecial
In association with
Foreword
by ADRIAN JONES,
PXS business development manager
Welcome to the Show House
Retirement Supplement, which
PXS is proud to sponsor. As a
market-leading part exchange
company, we are specialists in
the retirement sector, working
with leading developers, care providers and
agents across the country.
There is a retirement housing crisis in the
UK. PXS attended the Round Table featured in
this supplement. This open, frank discussion
illustrated the long list of major issues facing the
industry, be they the consumer causes highlighted
by Esther Rantzen, or the problems with land
supply and planning consents raised by Gary Day
at McCarthy & Stone.
As a part exchange provider, PXS is not in a
position to drive change in the market. However,
on a daily basis, our contact with developers,
house managers, sales agents and, above all, the
buyers and their families puts us at the heart of
this challenging market.
PXS alone cannot solve the Round Table issues,
but our service can help with one of the main
difficulties that buyers face when looking to move
into their retirement home: fear.
The fear and uncertainty of the changes in their
life are one of the main reasons buyers do not
make the decision to buy, or at best delay their
decision for many months, as mentioned by
Spencer McCarthy of Churchill Retirement Living
and Nick Sanderson of Audley Retirement.
The simple and certain solution that part
exchanging with PXS provides takes away this fear
and stress. As Alex McDermott at PXS observes:
“Through the home visits we make, we meet
owners who have often lived in the house for 40
years or more. It is hard enough to make the
decision to move after all that time, but if the
owner experiences problems caused by their buyer
or estate agent, the effect can be devastating.
This is where the trust people have in PXS puts
buyers and their families at ease.”
The subsequent benefits to clients are quicker
sales and completion dates agreed early, providing
cash flow certainty. The slow cash flow is seen as
one of the reasons why the major housebuilders
have not yet entered the retirement market. Part
exchanging sales could dramatically improve this
drawback while at the same time not locking up
vital capital on the stock bought. Something for
the big players to consider perhaps.
While our business model helps speed thing up,
we know that patience is a virtue, whether it be
with clients, owners or agents. After 18 years
buying part exchange properties, we have a clear
understanding of our clients needs and pride
ourselves on providing a really personal service.
We have state-of-the-art IT systems for our own
property assessments and also our Prism client
portal where you can log in and check the progress
on offers and acquisitions. However, as Matthew
Duncan of PXS explains: “We do not hide behind
these systems. Our success is based on the good
old-fashioned approach of picking up the phone
and talking. The IT we have in place just makes
everything more efficient and gives us time to
make the calls that make the difference in what
will always be a people business.”
We extend the personal approach to how we
adapt our service for individual clients. The part
exchange proposition has not fundamentally
changed since its introduction, as it is, by design,
simple and straightforward. However, PXS has
fine-tuned and adapted it.
We remain flexible in our approach, which you
can do when you are privately run with a close-knit
experienced team who trust each other. We take
on board client comments, we share ideas, we
implement them and we make them successful.
We have always looked to buy just about every
property offered to us and have never looked to
cherry-pick. We like to think we understand the
development industry and have taken a proactive
role with client’s sales staff through face-to-face
training, joining team meetings and remote,
web-based training. The same patient, caring
approach that retirement developers require
to sell their homes is the one PXS adopts
throughout its business.
So PXS is not going to single handedly solve the
retirement housing crisis, but we will continue
to play our role in working successfully with
developers and homeowners in this critical part
of the industry. Every day we see the brilliant
work that is being done; the improvements in
specification, design and the lifestyle that
developments provide.
And yet the perception of retirement housing is
still largely negative and not seen as aspirational.
Maybe the time has come for a new voice to
promote retirement living.
Not one that is developer or development
specific; not a political voice to deal with the more
complex issues raised in the Round Table, but a
group that simply tells people how good it is to
move into and live in a retirement development.
Let’s make it happen and find that voice. sh
Inglewood by Audley Retirement won Gold at the 2013 What House? Awards
showhouse July 2014 |
49
retirementspecial
In association with
Coming of age
With an
ageing
population
retirement living
is a burgeoning
market, with sector
pioneers McCarthy
& Stone in the
vanguard. RUPERT
BATES meets those
in charge
Cartwright Court, Malvern.
Foxmead Court, Storrington, Sussex
Clive Fenton, the new CEO of McCarthy &
Stone, knows all about volume housebuilding
after spending nearly 30 years with Barratt,
where he was a main board director.
While no specialist retirement home developer is
going to match the annual output of the likes of
Barratt, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey any time
soon, the demographics when it comes to housing
for the elderly point to a huge need for this type of
accommodation.
The owner-occupied retirement sector has the
capacity, according to research by Professor
Michael Ball of the University of Reading, to grow
from its current 2,500 units a year to 16,000.
McCarthy & Stone has always been the biggest
in the sector, pioneering the retirement homes
concept in 1977 and the company has sold more
than 45,000 apartments in over 1,000 locations.
“I am thoroughly enjoying my role here. It gives
me a real buzz seeing the positive effect our
▲
developments have on the owners, enriching
and reinvigorating their lives,” says Fenton, who
joined McCarthy & Stone earlier this year from
Mount Anvil.
We met in Basingstoke, Hampshire where
McCarthy & Stone has a retirement living
development, Emma Court, next door to an
assisted living scheme, Lady Susan Court – an
example of the company’s two-tiered levels of
support, tailored to needs, with management
and maintenance run by McCarthy & Stone’s
management services team, set up four years ago.
If you are in a hurry, don’t go to the homeowners’
lounge. A group of women were quick to ask
politely, but firmly, who I was and equally quick,
without prompting, to praise their McCarthy &
Stone apartments and the service, while making
new friends in a secure environment and clearly
with plenty to keep them occupied beyond coffee
mornings and meals in the on-site restaurant. A
familiar refrain from the armchairs was: “I wish
I’d moved here earlier.”
“We had one homeowner who moved over
from the Isle of Wight. She was in her 90s,
living alone and had had a stroke and could not
communicate with anyone. Now she has been
energised and talks to everybody. Loneliness is a
killer,” says Fenton.
The elderly tend to be more forthright in their
views – discerning customers, influenced by
practical delivery, not swayed by marketing hype.
They are also the best advocates and such is the
power of personal recommendation, no fewer than
five people from one street in Basingstoke have
bought apartments at Emma Court.
“The average age in our retirement living
developments is 79, which rises to 83 in assisted
living schemes, which are around 25% of our
product. Care is needs-based and if you don’t need
it, you don’t pay for it,’ says Fenton, adding that
showhouse July 2014 |
51
retirementspecial
In association with
John White
McCarthy & Stone is looking at building a third
product for a lower retirement age group.
“We are not just in the building business, we are
in the care business and service and consistency
of service is absolutely crucial. The demographics
around housing for older people speak for
themselves and we are looking to respond to the
need with major growth plans.”
That growth has started already with McCarthy
& Stone, which still has its head office in
Bournemouth, last month announcing 31 new
planning consents in the first five months of this
year to deliver 1,102 units, with a forward sales
value of £250m – part of a £1.5bn investment in
land and construction. A further statement of
ambition was last year’s appointment of former
Persimmon boss John White, as McCarthy &
Stone chairman.
The consents are all brownfield sites, including
an old police station, a car showroom and a petrol
station. The company’s half-year results to the end
of February showed revenue up 49% to £149.7m
with an EBITDA of £21.6m (up 106%).
The average sales price rose 17% to £205,000.
The developer has a pipeline of around 8,500
plots, with a projected sales value of £2bn.
Gary Day, executive land and planning director
of McCarthy & Stone, says: “We’re very pleased
in the growth and speed of recent planning
consents, which put us in a very strong position
to increase volumes and margins to drive the
value of the business.
“The growing momentum in planning consents
is demonstrating that our developments are
becoming more popular with planning authorities
as they acknowledge the growing need for
housing for our ageing population. Planners are
also now increasingly recognising that our
schemes provide a knock-on benefit of freeing
up existing, frequently under-occupied local
housing stock.”
Fenton wants to see a heightened awareness
among politicians and the public of the chronic
shortfall in retirement housing and recognises
that the industry must lead the charge.
“It is not just the housing. There are big
healthcare benefits too and a noticeable uplift
in wellbeing when people move into our
developments.
“We would like to see more government support
for the sector, more release of public land and
retirement homes treated in a similar way to
affordable housing in terms of provision. There are
very few new entrants to our market and it is a
totally different business model to mainstream
housebuilding. But if the pie got bigger we would
welcome the competition.”
Brownfield sites in or on the edge of towns and
villages means buyers spend locally and can help
regenerate high streets.
“We have calculated on average that over a
10-year period people living in one of our
developments will spend around £6m in the local
community,” says Fenton. “Older people are also
Queen Elizabeth Court, Kirkby Lonsdale
52|July 2014 showhouse
terrific supporters of charities and very giving of
their time to local events and causes.”
Councils have been instructed to plan better
to meet the housing needs of the elderly, but
financial anomalies and regulatory burdens do not
help, such as the Community Infrastructure Levy,
which fails to recognise the large, communal, nonsaleable areas in retirement developments, with
calls for a new Use Class to make retirement
housing more viable.
Retirement developers can gain extra
sustainability points by providing cycle storage,
but it is fair to say that McCarthy & Stone sites
are hardly awash with BMX bikes, although, by
contrast, electric scooter stores are full.
Opportunities, given the right planning and
regulatory triggers, abound in the retirement
home sector and in Fenton and White McCarthy
& Stone has two industry heavyweights to seize
them, following a refinancing of the business, led
by Goldman Sachs and TPG last summer and
emerging stronger and more enlightened from the
dark days of the HBOS era and the scars of the
Peverel management links.
All the statistics and demographics suggest the
retirement homes market is the space to be in. It
will be a fascinating space to watch. sh
Clive Fenton
Inspiring
a New Way
of Living
Renaissance Villages is a
multi award-winning
property company
specialising in high quality,
age-exclusive homes for discerning
buyers set within new private village
communities.
R
RETIREMENT PROFESSIONALS
Our retirement developments offer a selection of luxury cottages
and apartments centred around prestigious clubhouses featuring
a superb range of country club style facilities.
Consultancy, Management, Sales
To find out how we can help you, contact
Simon Crewe – Managing Director
[email protected]
Annette Elliott – Commercial Operations Manager
[email protected]
Freephone 0800 731 6287
Renaissance Villages Ltd
Suite 141-145 • Airport House • Purley Way • Croydon CR0 0XZ
For more information visit www.renaissancevillages.co.uk
As of 30th June 2014, Tetlow King (Architects) have rebranded, changing their name to
Thrive Architects.
Established for over 35 years the company has evolved to become leaders in the field of urban design,
residential design and the retirement care sector.
The new name also allows us to clarify the difference between Thrive Architects and
Tetlow King Planning, who are a separate company who will continue to offer town
planning consultancy services.
The current management team has been in place for over 10 years and with a long
term and expanding client base they felt the company needed to move forward to
reflect what they do now. So whilst the name above the door will change, the
directors, personalities, and the high quality of their work will remain the same.
ARCHITECTURE
t 01794 367 703
URBAN DESIGN
w www.thrivearchitects.co.uk
SUSTAINABILTY
e [email protected]
@thrivearchitect
A better chain of events
PXS are a market leading Part Exchange
company. We offer all the benefits you
would expect of a company which has
excelled in part exchange for the past 18
years and we tailor our service to suit the
needs and requirements of you and your
buyers. Maybe it’s time you called one
of the housebuilding industry’s best kept
secrets to see how we can work together
to support your business.
Part Exchange. Fully funded, outsourced
and tailored to your needs
your
To discuss how PXS can improve your sales performance using
our part exchange service, please contact Adrian, Alex or
Matthew on 0845 013 2550 or [email protected]
www.pxsproperties.co.uk
Adrian
Alex
Matthew
retirementspecial
In association with
Campaign to cure
AGE OLD PROBLEM
The crisis in the provision of retirement homes
and the wider issues affecting the elderly
should be key planks of political parties’
General Election manifestos.
A retirement homes debate, organised by
whathouse.co.uk, was held last month at the London
headquarters of Age UK, the country’s largest charity
representing older people and formed five years ago
from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged.
The panel included leading broadcaster and
campaigner for the elderly and founder of The
Silver Line, Esther Rantzen, chief executive of
Age UK, Tom Wright, and leading retirement home
and village developers.
While all political parties accept there is a huge
housing supply problem that has to be addressed, the
focus remains on lifting first-time buyers onto the
starter rung of the housing ladder, which, despite
government support schemes such as Help to Buy,
they might not be able to afford.
However, there is little collective will to help lift
the elderly off the mainstream housing ladder into
specialist accommodation, geared to specific needs
and motivations. There are only an estimated 100,000
specialist retirement properties to buy in the UK, but
there are 3.5m elderly people interested in purchasing
or renting such accommodation, even if not
sufficiently sold on their benefits.
It is a demographic imbalance that is only going to
get worse. One sixth of the UK population is already
aged 65 and over and this is forecast to rise to one
in four by 2050.
The bank of mum and dad may be trying to help
the young to buy, but the bank of granny and grandpa
holds billions and billions of golden bricks, locked up
in the equity in homes often either too large or no
longer fit for elderly purpose.
It is an over-simplistic solution, but let granny
downsize and family homes will be freed onto the
market for the grandchildren. Basic economics then
says rising supply should bring house prices down, or
at least curb rampant inflation, and the kids might
even be able to afford a home of their own, assuming
their love of the odd pint or a Pilates lesson does not
▲
The property
portal
WhatHouse?
put together a
distinguished panel
to discuss how to
solve the crisis in
retirement housing.
RUPERT BATES
chaired the debate
Esther Rantzen
Tom Wright
showhouse July 2014 |
55
retirementspecial
see them on the wrong side of the Mortgage Market
Review police.
“We need a coordinated campaign promoting the
issues. It is not just about building the right new
housing, but also dramatically improving existing
stock, getting property fit for purpose and properly
insulated. Pensions, health and access to proper
retirement planning and guidance on equity release
are also vital messages to highlight and get right,”
said Tom Wright.
Esther Rantzen said marketing campaigns and
government lobbying had to be fronted by older
people. “We need consumer champions to say the
government has not noticed, so we have to speak
for ourselves. Elderly people vote and they vote
conscientiously. There are some incredibly positive
stories out there about how moving into a retirement
home has transformed lives.”
Retirement developers round the table vowed to
find advocates among their residents to promote the
benefits of moving into specialist housing. There are
clear health advantages too, with evidence of elderly
people enjoying new leases of life, fired by fresh
companionship and peace of mind.
Far from retirement schemes adding to a local
authority’s health bill, they can relieve the burden and
reboot town centres. Brownfield sites are actively
sought, with residents wanting easy access to shops
and amenities, while a secure environment, with
appropriate levels of care and support, can prevent
accidents in the home that see the elderly ending up
in hospital or worse.
“Around four million older people have long-term
health conditions. They are not necessarily lifelimiting, but they do affect the way they live,” said
Wright. “There are 600,000 fall-related A&E
attendances each year in the UK for people over the
age of 60. There are also 27,000 winter deaths in
England and Wales that could be due to people being
unable to afford the cost of heating their homes.”
The irony is that while the elderly in hospital are
seen as ‘bed blockers’, those unable or unwilling to
downsize their home are effectively ‘bedroom
blockers’, restricting the supply of family housing
coming to market.
As well as promoting the positives in retirement
living, negative stories and perceptions need to be
overturned. A major black mark against the industry is
leasehold, with the Campaign Against Retirement
Leasehold Exploitation (Carlex) leading the fight to
protect the elderly from unscrupulous landlords and
managing agents and campaigning vigorously for
leasehold reform and regulation.
“I am absolutely committed to promoting proper
housing for the elderly, but the legal and regulatory
architecture needs to be right and robust and
transparent,” said Rantzen.
Many of the issues revolve around old housing
stock beyond the control of current developers, but
56| July 2014 showhouse
the panel recognised the need for better regulation,
not to mention educating buyers about leasehold
legislation, exit fees (deferred management charges)
and resale values.
Nick Sanderson, chief executive of Audley
Retirement, said there was a knowledge vacuum and
a fear of the unknown that gave the elderly a negative
perception of retirement housing and left them
unaware of what it could offer them, both
emotionally and financially.
Gary Day, land and planning director of McCarthy
& Stone, said: “We are still a relatively new
industry, improving what we do, and I support the
principle of better regulation and we must learn
from our mistakes. We also live with the stigma of
public sector housing – often poorly designed and
in the wrong location. McCarthy & Stone has built
more than 1,100 schemes with incredibly high
customer satisfaction levels. We must celebrate
what is done well.”
Wright said the UK had a sad history of mis-selling
a range of services and that there was a degree of
ageism running through banking and health care, as
well as housing.
“We have to present the upside better, but also
be conscious that for many their pension is their
property and their only asset, so they are bound to be
financially nervous,” said Wright.
James Cobb, managing director of Retirement
Property Options, said industry perceptions were also
skewed by confusing terminology and inconsistent
terms and definitions around retirement housing and
the level of care, facilities and amenities.
Even the connotations of retirement are confusing.
Retiring from work or life? Also, even with people
living longer, there is a perception that retirement is
merely moving you into god’s waiting room.
In association with
Nick Sanderson
Gary Day
retirementspecial
In association with
The irony is that while the elderly in hospital are
seen as ‘bed blockers’, those unable or unwilling
to downsize their home are effectively ‘bedroom
blockers’, restricting the supply of family housing
coming to market
James Cobb
Spencer McCarthy
“People don’t tend to look for a retirement home
until they have to look and then ‘what now?’ hits them
very hard and they dread it, with all sorts of horror
stories in their heads, real or imagined,” said Cobb.
“But talk to many who have made the move and
they say they wish they had done it years ago. There
is a mismatch between perception and reality.”
There is also an assumption that the elderly looking
to downsize are all dowager duchesses rattling around
in draughty rectories, down to their last butler.
“Arguably, referring to anything as age-specific is
wrong, certainly in marketing terms. Buyers of
retirement property don’t think of themselves as old.
They are just like us, but a bit older,” said Sanderson.
“Housing provision is needs based and it is not
only patronising but wrong to lump everyone into
one category, especially given the huge age range
we are talking about,” said Spencer McCarthy,
chairman and group managing director of Churchill
Retirement Living.
McCarthy says the average price of a Churchill
home is £230,000, but the average price of the home
their buyers are selling is under £300,000, so the
asset-rich, cash-poor, argument only goes so far.
McCarthy would also like to see estate agents
better educated about the value of resale retirement
properties; not to mention in the case of death, the
involvement of executors looking for a quick sale.
Adrian Jones is business development manager of
PXS, a company specialising in the retirement and
care sector, providing part exchange and chainbreaking services to developers and agents.
“When an elderly person is selling, we make home
visits and there are invariably a lot of pressure points.
Even the closest families, when it comes to selling,
are fractured. The daughter might be happy for her
mother to move in with her; the son-in-law less so.
Meanwhile, the son might not like the loss in value,
if selling at the wrong time in terms of the market, if
not the needs of the mother,” said Jones.
This raised the idea of more ‘multigenerational’
households, building or adapting homes to cater for
as much as three generations of one family, but with
separate front doors and independent space vital to
avoid domestic meltdown.
“There is a lot of value in intergenerational living.
It embeds a sense of community. Not everybody
wants to or can afford to downsize and go on long
cruises,” said Wright.
There was an argument for the government to
appoint a minister for older people. “When Alf Morris
was Minister for Disabled People he went into every
government department and kept at them to address
the issues. You need someone who knows how
government works and won’t be fobbed off,” said
Rantzen, suggesting Kenneth Clarke as a candidate
for the role.
“The danger in having a designated minister is that
you delegate away from key departments. Ageing and
its implications across so many services are such huge
and fundamental issues,” said Wright.
“There is no burning bridge yet with the ageing
population and until there is, central and local
government will continue to work on policy and
budget in silos,” said Richard Davis, chief executive of
LifeCare Residences. Davis is from New Zealand,
where the LifeCare Residences concept started
before being brought to the UK.
It is a subject that, even with the best intentions, is
almost impossible not to sound patronising about. As
a sign in the Age UK meeting room said: “We live in
an ageing world – don’t let it be an ageist one.”
An 85-year-old can be healthier than someone aged
60 and they are a generation apart. The media rolled
out the D-Day veterans for last month’s 70th
anniversary of the Landings and although the stories
were powerful and emotive, there is a sense that the
veterans are rolled out for the cameras and then put
back in their rocking chairs behind closed doors.
We need older people to be in the public eye every
single day urged the panel: Kirstie Allsopp and Phil
Spencer to follow elderly couples in their hunt for a
retirement property; elderly champions taking their
issues to the polls.
It is not just a sector of the market that is growing
in number; it is a sector that, god willing, all of us will
at some point be part of and if we have elderly
relatives, we should be engaged with already.
“Look at a picture of yourself when you were 20
years younger and you will recognise it. If someone
creates a picture of you 20 years older you won’t, or
won’t want to,” said Sanderson.
Think of everyone as you, only slightly older and
do something about a scandalous lack of joined up
thinking in housing, health and finance. The
campaign starts here.
showhouse July 2014 |
57
retirementspecial
In association with
You are not alone
“The day I moved out of the family home
into my granny flat was a horrible day. I lay
in bed with a sheet over my head and thought
I am never getting out again. It felt like a
prison cell. There is so much emotion and
fear. But now I love it. You feel a change of
identity, but there is no need to be lonely,”
said Esther Rantzen.
“My new build flat has its own front door, vigilant
porters greet me. I feel safe and secure.”
The Silver Line, which launched last year as a
free, 24-hour helpline, has already taken more than
130,000 calls, as it looks to combat loneliness among
the elderly.
“We ask ‘what do you do for fun?’ and often there is
a uncomfortable silence, followed by ‘I haven’t had
fun since I was young’. That is desperately sad.
Retirement developments need to have Heads of
Fun,” added Rantzen.
Rantzen read out a letter from the daughter of an
87-year-old woman, who had downsized.
“Her mother’s life is now a social whirl. She feels
independent; can walk to the doctor and walk down
the corridor to see a friend. There is a knitting and
nattering circle. She can’t do the knitting due to her
eyesight, but loves the nattering. Why aren’t there any
property programmes about elderly people looking for
new homes?”
Spencer McCarthy told the story of his parents-inlaw living in a bungalow, but never seeing anyone.
He eventually persuaded them to look at one of
Churchill’s developments.
“Companionship and lifestyle are so important.
We have events managers who make sure there are
always things going on to cater for a wide range of
interests,” said Suzanne Revell, group marketing
director of Churchill Retirement Living. “We need to
sell the concept of a retirement move as aspirational.
It doesn’t have to be a compromise and you can look
forward to it.”
In one generation you have elderly parents
desperate not to be a burden on their family; in
another their children, part of Generation Guilt,
feeling they are not doing enough to look after their
parents in old age.
Sally Knocker is a consultant for Dementia Care
Matters, an organisation looking to change cultures of
care with pioneering work, including a Quality of Life
kitemark for care homes, with the emphasis on
stimulating environments and enabling meaningful
occupation that is relevant to each individual design
and activity to stimulate the senses and emotions –
simple things like easy access to outside, a view of the
garden, or sun on the face.
“Often staying at home is the ultimate aspiration,
with home care visitors as necessary. There is a
marketing job to be done. People even refer to being
‘put into a home,’ which suggests it is against people’s
58| July 2014 showhouse
will and always a negative move,” said Knocker.
“Homes for older people have the potential to be
the hub of the community. They need what I call the
‘Hogwarts’ makeover, doing for retirement and care
housing what Harry Potter did for boarding schools.”
Richard Davis of LifeCare Residences says ageing
and place is misunderstood. “A property in one of
our retirement villages is another home in a more
appropriate place, but it is still your home to cherish
and enjoy and not just grow old in.”
Nick Sanderson of Audley said it was a typically
British thing to judge people about where they live
and what they live in, rather than how they live.
“There is this natural fear about what old age will
offer or how it will be. It can be very different
things to different people. We must sell and
articulate the lifestyle possibilities in better ways.
An 85-year-old may not be ready for a retirement
home. We too easily impose old age on people,”
said Sanderson.
“Too often we ask the wrong questions. We need to
say ‘what do you want to do?’ rather than assuming as
an industry we know best. The next time we have a
Round Table we need some elderly residents from
retirement villages, or a group of people reluctant to
downsize and hear what they have to say,” said Cobb
from Retirement Property Options.
“There are so many niches in this sector and there
is no one-size-fits-all solution. We need to promote
all the benefits – housing, financial, health. The
problem with the demographics surrounding housing
and caring for the elderly is a bit like climate change.
There is an acceptance by many that it is happening,
but the crisis seems too far away to worry about
now,” said Davis.
Adrian Jones
Richard Davis
Sally Knocker
Suzanne Revell
retirementspecial
In association with
Planning to retire
Henry Thornton
THE PANEL
Rupert Bates – chair; editorial director of
WhatHouse? and Show House
Tom Wright – CEO, Age UK
Esther Rantzen – broadcaster, journalist and
founder of The Silver Line
Spencer McCarthy – chairman and group MD,
Churchill Retirement Living
Nick Sanderson – CEO, Audley Retirement
Gary Day – land & planning director,
McCarthy & Stone
Richard Davis – CEO, LifeCare Residences
Suzanne Revell – marketing director,
Churchill Retirement Living
Adrian Jones – business development manager, PXS
James Cobb – MD, Retirement Property Options
Henry Thornton – chairman, Cognatum
Sally Knocker – consultant, Dementia Care Matters
No housing Round Table is complete without
planning – or rather a lack of it.
“There are a lot of issues to resolve, but housing
for the elderly continues to be dictated by the
planning system,” said Henry Thornton, chairman of
Cognatum, which manages more than 60 schemes.
“Thirty years ago planning worked for us as it
was novel; planners were generally helpful and
understood the need. Retirement developers could
design attractive schemes, taking advantage of
grouped housing, communal gardens, reduced
parking and low traffic generation,” added Thornton.
“Post PPG3 these advantages have largely gone
and instead the system works against retirement
schemes, with the added imposition of affordable
housing and CIL. This is forcing developers down
the path of C2 use, which bizarrely means that the
style of future retirement schemes is being dictated
by the need to get round planning policy.”
Gary Day of McCarthy & Stone said housing
policy was a major stumbling block and that the
government should look at initiatives to help the
elderly, in the same way that it has schemes tailored
to first-time buyers.
“What about stamp duty exemption for downsizing?
There are still affordability issues to address in this
sector. Giving fluidity to the housing chain will
actually create a tax saving for the Treasury, not to
mention health and social care advantages,” said Day.
The average age of a McCarthy & Stone buyer
is increasing year on year, with Britain’s largest
specialist retirement homes developer also looking at
new products for earlier downsizers.
“We don’t build bungalows because of planning, as
they are low density and land hungry, but they are a
fantastic form of housing,” said Day.
Cobb from Retirement Property Options says
some local authorities reject schemes on the
basis they do not want more old people in their
communities. “But they are already there and getting
older by the day, so why not create the right type of
housing?” said Cobb, stressing that a variety of
tenures, including rentals, need to be offered to the
market too.
WhatHouse? is to launch a dedicated retirement homes
portal in response to the overwhelming need for
retirement housing in the UK and the lack of sufficient
information and advice for older people looking to move
into specialist housing and retirement villages.
“WhatHouse.co.uk is already a leading property portal,
best known for its coverage of the new build market. But it
makes absolute sense to look specifically at the retirement
sector, which is critical to housing supply,” said Mark
Edmondson, sales director of WhatHouse?
The portal is being launched in partnership with
“There is a market failure here. The sector has a
massive market share demographically and yet we do
not see mainstream volume housebuilders getting
involved, not least because it is a completely
different business model and they see it as too
complicated, or specialist, to deliver,” said Day.
Sanderson of Audley said that in a cyclical market
with a huge undersupply of housing, developers
were either selling out quickly or battening down the
hatches, depending on where in the cycle they were
and so felt little need to innovate.
“We cannot continue to neglect 25% of the
population, who are over 60. We have looked at joint
ventures with mainstream developers, but they
consider retirement schemes difficult to manage,
with slower decision-making by purchasers and some
are even concerned about the possible effect on their
brand reputation,” said Sanderson.
McCarthy said it costs Churchill around £6m
to build a retirement scheme, but they need to
complete the development before they sell a single
unit, with no demand to buy off-plan. “From
initial enquiry to purchase can take 12 months,”
said McCarthy.
Thornton said that despite rising land and build
costs, retirement developers had “a duty to posterity”.
“Good architecture does not have to cost more.
A retirement property needs to be better planned
than the current home and you need to think about
adequate storage. There should be increased levels of
comfort and security and no maintenance to worry
about,” said Thornton.
Panellists agreed that with suitable planning and
partnerships there could be opportunities for more
joint ventures between developers and care providers
to build more schemes, offering dementia care in
retirement homes, such as those delivered by
Anchor, England’s largest not-for-profit provider of
housing and care for older people.,
“There is a lot of combined knowledge to be tapped
into from the right location through to the most
appropriate and wide-ranging levels of care. We
should seize the opportunities to work more closely
together,” said Knocker. sh
Retirement Property Options, led by James Cobb, a
company offering personal advice to people looking to
buy retirement properties.
“We already have some retirement developers listed on
our website and there is also plenty of editorial and
advertising in our regional WhatHouse? newspapers. A
dedicated portal, with listings and expert advice and
articles, is a natural extension of our sector coverage,”
said Jay Ali, WhatHouse? sales manager responsible for
retirement home clients.
Mark Edmondson: [email protected]. Tel: 020-7940-1070
Mark Edmondson
Jay Ali
showhouse July 2014 |
59
retirementspecial
In association with
From tea boy to
INDUSTRY TYCOON
SPENCER
MCCARTHY,
chairman and
group managing
director of Churchill
Retirement Living,
talks about his
personal journey to
creating the UK’s
fastest growing
retirement property
business
I’m very proud of the fact that in 20 years,
Churchill Retirement Living has become a
nationwide success story. Churchill was
previously Emlor Homes (Housebuilder of
the Year at the 1997 WhatHouse? Awards),
named after my brother Clinton’s daughters,
Laura and Emma.
Churchill now has 26 selling sites and in our last
financial year we sold 375 properties, up by 30%
on the previous year, with a turnover of £90m and
net pre-tax profit of £15m.
As recession approached, we took early action in
August 2007 to safeguard the company, closing
down two regional satellite offices, reducing our
workforce from 192 to 90, selling sites to our
competitors and mothballing two other sites.
This put the company in a very strong position
financially and protected our reputation. There
have been many changes at Churchill over the
years, but what has always remained true is that
it is a family affair, whether it’s with my brother
Clinton, our father John McCarthy (founder
of McCarthy & Stone) or the colleagues that
work for us.
My father gave me the opportunity to learn every
aspect of the business at McCarthy & Stone.
There was certainly no preferential treatment and
he wasn’t afraid to set me straight.
Dad knows the retirement market inside out,
reads it better than most and was instrumental
in advising the long-term strategy for Churchill to
survive the tough recession years from 2007 to
2012. With his depth of knowledge and years of
experience, his influence as a non-executive
▲
Hamlet Lodge, Gloucester
director of our company is substantial, though it
doesn’t always mean we agree!
My father pioneered the concept of retirement
housing. In 1977 he built his first retirement
development in New Milton, Hampshire, when
most private housebuilders wouldn’t consider
providing homes designed exclusively for the
older market.
I started working for him aged 14 as a tea boy
during holidays and at weekends, before leaving
school to train as a carpenter at Southampton
Technical College. I then rejoined my father in
1982, first as a carpenter on-site, before working
my way up to surveyor, then site manager, as well
as working in sales and marketing and advising the
board on site purchases and construction budgets.
In 1994 I decided to make my own way, setting
up Emlor Homes with my brother Clinton, who is
now managing director. Dad left McCarthy &
Stone in 2004 and sold his shareholding of 21%
after a failed bid by the McCarthy family to buy
back the business.
Churchill’s business model works and remains
focused where we believe the mass demand lies
within the retirement market. The typical profile
of our customer is a 79-year-old widow, who is
asset rich but cash poor. Her husband has recently
died; she lives in a three-bedroom detached house
out of town with no family around to help.
This is where Churchill comes in. The children
can move mum nearer to them into a Churchill
development with no maintenance issues, close to
the shops and companionship with like-minded
residents. It’s all about the lifestyle.
The average price of a Churchill apartment is
£227,000 and purchasers are typically moving
from a property priced around £280,000. We
are on track to achieve 800 sales by 2017, with
a turnover of £250m and a forecast net profit
of £90m.
We specialise exclusively in providing
developments of one- and two-bedroom, selfcontained apartments – around 550ft² for a onebedroom property and 680ft² for two-bedroom
homes, with their own front door and communal
facilities – with the developments managed by
Millstream Management Services, a company set
up by Churchill.
As with many family-run companies, it’s more
than just money. Yes we obviously seek profit
and growth, but it’s also a business we’re
passionate about.
My grandmother, aged 82, was burgled three
times and was too scared to go outside her
showhouse July 2014 |
61
retirementspecial
In association with
Steeple Lodge, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield
bungalow, until we persuaded her to move to a
retirement apartment. She insisted on living on
the first floor overlooking the main road, so she
could see what was going on. She refused to go in
the owners’ lounge, but eventually was down there
all the time. She went out every day and her
quality of life improved.
While retirement housing has proved a very
successful business for my family, it has been
largely overlooked as an industry, despite the
overwhelming evidence of people living longer and
an acute shortage not only of specialist retirement
properties, but of housing in general.
The publication of the government’s final
National Planning Practice Guidance is an
important milestone in beginning to tackle the
growing issue of housing supply for our ageing
population. It recognises that the projected
increase in the number of households aged
65 and over will account for over half of new
households in the future, and requires local
authorities to evaluate the needs of older people
when planning housing supply, giving due
consideration to the size, location and quality
of new developments.
While these are welcome changes, the
government must go further to fully address the
wider issues. There is already a significant
shortage of specialist retirement housing.
The 2013 paper, Top of the Ladder, by think
tank Demos, highlighted the chronic undersupply
of suitable accommodation for older people. It
identified that up to 3.5 million older people,
with more than £400bn of housing wealth, are
interested in buying or renting a retirement
property, but that there are only 100,000 such
properties currently available in the UK.
While changes in the NPPG will assist future
development in this area, in an age demographic
where affordability is often an issue, the market
must be stimulated to help get people moving, in
much the same way as at the bottom of the ladder.
Too often, the focus is on those struggling to
buy their first home. However, along with other
specialist retirement developers, we are calling for
62|July 2014 showhouse
Up to 3.5 million older people, with more than £400bn of
housing wealth, are interested in buying or renting a
retirement property, but there are only around 100,000
such properties currently available in the UK
the Help to Buy scheme to be revised to make it
inclusive for older people, and we are lobbying for
stamp duty to be abolished for older people who
are downsizing to a smaller property.
When you consider that each year a resident
postpones moving into care, the states saves on
average just over £28,000 (Source: Demos, Top of
the Ladder, 2013) it makes good economic sense,
if nothing else. And, by having more proactive
policies in this area to assist older homebuyers, it
could in turn free up to 3.29 million family homes.
Despite the obvious shortfalls, it is encouraging
to see the issue of older people’s housing
beginning to gain momentum in the political
arena. As the debate heats up, we will continue to
work in partnership with local planning authorities
to ensure an appropriate range of housing is
offered to older people in a way that satisfies local
planning policy, as well as the government’s wider
planning and housing objectives.
Furthermore, we will use the Campaign for
Housing in Later Life as a platform to continue
to raise the profile of later life housing and
encourage national and local government to do
more in this sector.
The need for specialist retirement
accommodation will continue to grow. Am I
worried, competitively, that private housebuilders
outside the retirement sector will move in?
Unlikely, because sheltered housing development
is too specialist and requires substantial upfront
investment to develop the entire block and
establish the management and services required
before the first apartment can be sold.
Additional empty property costs are incurred
once the development is completed, such as
council tax after six months, electricity to heat
each apartment and the service charge to the
management company to pay for the communal
facilities. As a result, the development remains
cash negative until sufficient apartments have
been sold.
Cash negative yes, but the future for the
retirement homes sector is positive with the right
level of public awareness and political support and
I was delighted to take part in the WhatHouse?
Round Table in this issue of Show House. The
industry must lead the way in helping to defuse a
huge demographic time bomb. sh
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retirementspecial
In association with
NEWS
Audley Inglewood highly commended at prestigious property awards
Audley Inglewood House, the luxury retirement
village situated near Newbury in Berkshire, has
been highly commended in the Best Large
Development category at the 2014 London
Evening Standard New Homes Awards, just
a few months after taking home the Best
Retirement Development gold award at last
year’s WhatHouse? Awards.
Nick Sanderson, CEO of Audley Retirement
Villages, said: “The entire Audley team are very
Goldsborough Estates ready
for sector expansion
Specialist retirement housing managers
Goldsborough Estates, part of Bupa,
says it expects the arrival of mainstream
housebuilders into the niche retirement
market and is preparing to offer its
expertise to newcomers to the sector
should they need it.
Managing director Simon Crewe has been
studying the market for some time and
feels that now the time is right. “There
seems to be complete agreement between
policymakers and industry experts that
the inevitable rise in the numbers of the
over 60s over the next few decades will
lead to an acute shortage of property
designed with the older purchaser in
mind – and which also meets their high
expectations. It can only be a matter
of time before more developers take
advantage of the opportunity presented by
this gap in the market.”
Crewe added: “The new providers will
quickly realise that their new customers
present diverse challenges. With the
emphasis on independent lifestyles, the
‘younger’ older generation will be looking
for high quality, edgy design with hasslefree maintenance, generous room sizes
and ‘smart’ homes. Security with discreet
support services that can be increased
should the need arise and communal
facilities that encourage sociability
without intrusion. Their success will
depend on understanding how to achieve
such a complex balance.”
proud that the Inglewood development has been
recognised by the London Evening Standard New
Homes Awards. This is testament to the hard work
of our team and high standard of design.”
“At Audley we are transforming retirement living,
ensuring our design and the service we offer is
what over 55s actually want. Older people are
fundamentally just like everyone else and deserve
great design, particularly where they live.”
Audley Retirement Villages enables those who
Renaissance Villages launches
rebrand
Renaissance Villages (formerly Urban Renaissance
Villages) has introduced a new corporate brand,
including a new logo, tagline, website and
marketing materials.
Iwan Jones, Renaissance Villages’ managing
director, said: “This is an exciting time for the
company. We have invested in creating a stronger
brand presence that reflects our well-established
reputation and values, as well as representing our
vision for the future.
“Drawing on the Renaissance period themes
of rebirth and revival, our new brand identity
represents our primary aim – to create a
wonderful, stress-free and independent lifestyle
for our customers. As our tagline, ‘Inspirational
Living’, reflects, we are committed to providing
a lifestyle that truly reflects the needs of our
customers, by opening up new opportunities
for this exciting phase in life, and above all,
providing choices.
“We’re delighted that our new website
(www.renaissancevillages.co.uk) has already
increased our online presence and is helping us
to communicate better with current as well as
prospective clients.”
Renaissance Villages
currently operates four
developments: Bramshott
Place in Liphook,
Hampshire; Durrants
Village in Faygate, West
Sussex; Millbrook Village
in Exeter, Devon; and
Maudslay Park in Great
Alne, near Stratfordupon-Avon.
live there to enjoy
an independent and
healthy retirement
in their own homes
and in a like-minded
community. They enjoy full access to the Audley
Club and its range of facilities, with flexible care
and support available should it become necessary.
Individuals buy their home or apartment from
Audley and own it on a 125-year lease.
Warwick Estates helps
retirement development
with RTM
Warwick Estates Property Management has
assisted leaseholders of Homecherry House
retirement development in Loughton, Essex
with the Right to Manage (RTM) process.
The leaseholders and residents had been
looking for a more transparent and proactive
management service for some time and
Warwick Estates was able to successfully
provide the leaseholders with the RTM
and also deliver innovate solutions to
management of the development. Since
obtaining the management, Warwick Estates
has decorated the internal areas of the
development, in consultation with the
leaseholders, giving them the choice on
colour, wallpaper and contractor. The
leaseholders were also involved with the
appointment of a new housing manager,
ensuring that they felt comfortable and at
ease with the chosen candidate.
The leaseholders of Homecherry House
now feel more comfortable with the
standard of living at the development, with
the management provided by Warwick
Estates, and are thrilled to have input into
the major decisions that affect their homes.
Warwick Estates is dedicated to providing
the retirement housing sector with a quality
management service, acting within the
guidelines of the ARHM and fully compliant
with the upcoming amendments to the
code, actively promoting the fair treatment
of leaseholders in retirement developments.
Windsor retirement village gets go-ahead
Plans for a new 130-home retirement village in Windsor have taken a major step forward, with
news that construction is due to start by spring 2015.
Robin Hughes, chief executive of Castle Retirement Living confirmed that it would commence
building work on its £30m Castle View project early next year, and with most of the funding now
in place, the entire project could be completed in one phase within approximately 20 months.
The over-55s development will comprise 58 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and a
72-bed care home and will be ready for occupation by late summer 2016. Resident facilities will
include roof gardens with spectacular views of Windsor Castle and St Leonard’s Hill, a rooftop
conservatory, coffee shop and restaurant. Leading care provider Care
UK will operate the care home and offer a menu of care to residents
living in apartments as well, if required.
Castle Retirement Living has already received considerable interest
in the apartments. Off-plan sales are now available, with the first
release of 20 apartments exclusively available to the residents of
Windsor and their families until the end of July 2014. Prices start
from £299,000.
64|July 2014 showhouse