Octopus and PIC to create Elysian retirement scheme

Octopus and PIC’s joint venture has bought a nine-acre site in St Albans, Hertfordshire, as its first retirement community investment. The How Wood site, bought by their Senior Living Investment Partners jv, has consent, in partnership with Elysian Residences, to develop a 124-home scheme with a GDV of £115m. The deal forms part of PIC’s purposeful investment strategy, which invests the pensions of its policy holders in secure, long-term assets. The How Wood scheme will be Elysian’s sixth integrated retirement community. It will feature 80 apartments and 44 two-bedroom bungalows, as well as a restaurant, cafe and bar, library, wellbeing and therapy centre, cinema and village green. Max Cawthorn, PIC Capital’s senior strategy manager, said: “Local St Albans residents will be given the opportunity to purchase the residences off-plan first, and we expect high demand for these high-quality and well-located homes, which will be purpose built to empower our residents to live independently.” Kevin Beirne, head of retirement living at Octopus, added: “Developing more retirement communities at pace presents a brilliant opportunity for investors, operator partners, those approaching or in retirement, and for the UK and the government’s levelling-up agenda. This first investment via our partnership with PIC has the prospect to deliver both strong returns for our stakeholders and strong impact returns by combating some of the UK’s biggest problems, not least the housing crisis and pressures on health services.” The scheme is planned as the first of many. Senior Living Investment Partners aims to house up to 2,000 people in the coming years across 10 integrated retirement community developments. Gavin Stein, chief executive at Elysian, said: “We are actively looking for new sites and investment opportunities to undertake with PIC and Octopus Real Estate.” To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Image from Elysian Residences