Cheyne Capital Management is investing £24m (€28.1m) to develop two UK care homes as part of its impact real estate strategy.
The state-of-the-art of facilities will provide 140 care beds, more than a third of which will be allocated to publicly-funded residents at rates set by local authorities and NHS clinical commissioning groups.
Both private-pay and publicly-funded residents will have access to identical facilities and care services, and Cheyne said this was consistent with its “tenure-blind approach” used through its real estate portfolio, which aims to reduce inequalities.
Construction has commenced on the first facility in Crewe, Cheshire, and a second scheme is to follow in Whitchurch, Shropshire, in the new year.
Ravi Stickney, CIO of Cheyne Real Estate, said: “Unlike with general-needs housing, where planners can impose on developers the delivery of a proportion of affordable homes, there is no requirement for the delivery of any affordable beds within new-build care homes. Typically, therefore, good-quality, secure and appropriately-fitted care homes are only available to the small percentage of people who can afford them.
“With this investment, we are looking to change that status quo by demonstrating that impact-led institutional investors like us can, and are willing to, cater to local authority and NHS needs by delivering a significant proportion of affordable beds within modern, purpose-built care homes.”
The homes will be operated by Anavo Group, which was established in early 2020 and now runs 11 homes. Cheyne said Anavo uses innovative architecture, an evidence-based care programme and technology to improve residents’ quality of life.
“We chose to partner with Anavo because we admire their mission to challenge the stigma of ageing and the perception of what living in a care home looks and feels like,” Stickney said.
“We look forward to working together to deliver on this shared vision which puts inclusivity and quality of life at the forefront of its aims.”
Tom Brookes, co-founder of Anavo, said: “We are excited to work with Cheyne Capital to create these homes and we look forward to building a long-term partnership. Cheyne very much understood our objectives and the key drivers for delivering high quality care.
“We have a strong pipeline of additional sites in locations with high demand for purpose-built care homes and a number of these have secured planning with construction to start in 2022.
“Our purpose is to create a real connection between the physical environment and our ground-breaking care approach, which will make a huge difference to empowering the people in our services.”
