Audley Group signs pioneering £28.5m loan facility

Audley Group, a specialist retirement living provider, has completed a unique, five-year, £28.5m financing agreement with Federated Hermes. The loan facility will focus on six fully developed and sold-out villages within Audley Group’s portfolio. The financing facility uses operating surpluses, meaning the more cash flow the villages generate, the more that can be advanced. The villages include Willicombe Park, which is 23 years’ old, and Audley Redwood, which has been open for five years. This unique financing facility is the first of its kind in the retirement living sector, where funding has to date focused on development and stock financing. Gary Burton, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, Audley Group, said: “Our well-established track record as long-term operators of Integrated Retirement Communities means we are constantly striving to invest in both our current villages while also securing and developing our next sites. “A holistic approach to the way IRCs secure financing is necessary if we are to succeed in our goal of increasing the provision of units for the UK’s ageing population. Our focus is to finance mature and maturing villages (and their secure and upward inflating incomes) to invest into new villages to bring more units to market.” This financing agreement follows the announcement in August 2023 that Audley Group and Senior Living Investment Partners agreed to acquire 100% of the long leasehold interest in a plot within the Brent Cross Town masterplan on which to develop a new retirement village as part of Audley Group’s Mayfield Villages. SLIP is a £200m partnership between Pension Insurance Corporation and Octopus Real Estate. To send feedback, e-mail akanksha.soni@eg.co.uk or tweet @AkankshaEG or @EGPropertyNews Image: Audley’s Cobham retirement village