The Carlyle Group has acquired a UK senior housing developer from Alchemy Partners.

The investment firm’s €540m Carlyle Europe Realty fund has invested an undisclosed sum to buy Beechcroft, which owns a portfolio of homes in Greater London and South East England.

Founded more than 35 years ago, Beechcroft offers fully integrated platform in the sector and covers the entire development value chain including site sourcing, design and planning, construction, and sales.

Carlyle said there is also the opportunity to further scale and expand the Beechcroft platform “given the size and fragmentation of the senior housing market”.

Anssi Halonen, managing director on the Carlyle Europe Realty advisory team, said: “We were attracted to Beechcroft given its high quality and resilient platform which covers all aspects of the development value chain.

”We believe this acquisition represents an excellent entry point into the low-care UK senior housing sector, an area which benefits from strong demographic trends and an increased demand in a COVID-impacted environment.”

Chris Thompson, managing director of Beechcroft, said Carlyle’s investment in the company will enable the Beechcroft team to seek to capitalise on the significant market opportunity on offer, which “includes the areas of rented, shared ownership and discounted market sale housing for the elderly, as well as the development of our private housing and strategic land offerings, alongside our high-quality retirement schemes”.

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