Adlington Retirement Living has completed three land purchases in three months as part of its ambitious expansion plans.
The three sites are in St Leonard’s, Exeter, Timperley in Greater Manchester, and Ampthill in Bedfordshire.
Dr Ed Gladman, CEO of Adlington Retirement Living, said: “Over the past 12 months, we have grown our in-house land team to five dedicated land directors. This has enabled us to actively hunt for land parcels of 1-4 acres across a much wider geographical spread and the three sites that we have now acquired are a result of that work.”
Since 2008, Adlington Retirement Living has launched 16 communities across the North West, Yorkshire, Wales and the Midlands. In the past six years, it has grown from 30 employees to a team of more than 250 across land acquisition, planning, architectural, technical design, procurement, construction and other departments.
Gladman continued: “There’s an urgent need to address the shortage of appropriate housing for older people and integrated retirement communities (IRCs) are a very undersupplied part of the market. Having grown to our current position of opening three sites every year, our ambition is to move to launching six new sites each year within the next three years.”
Adlington Retirement Living aims to empower the older generation to live a long, happy and healthy life, creating apartments in quality retirement communities and providing safe and secure environments with activities, extensive communal facilities and beautiful private gardens.
The 1.3-acre plot in St Leonard’s is the former site of the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education, which has been vacant for three years. The site is situated close to the River Exe, within easy access of Exeter City Centre and surrounded by parks and green spaces. Plans have yet to be submitted but are likely to feature approximately 72 one, two and three-bedroom apartments plus extensive communal areas.
In Timperley, the site acquired in April 2023, will become Adlington Retirement Living’s first rental-only scheme.
Dr Ed Gladman said: “We are looking to introduce a rental model to our portfolio of IRCs. We want to offer consumers more choice and broaden the appeal of retirement living. We’ve already noticed an increase in enquiries about rental options, so we know there’s a growing demand from our customers.”
A report published in 2022 predicted that the UK rental market for IRCs will grow by £2.65billion over the next five years as customers demand greater flexibility and investors continue to look more closely at this growing sector.
In Ampthill, the 2.24-acre plot acquired in June 2023, is the site of a former care home and is located in close proximity to the picturesque market town of Ampthill in the heart of Bedfordshire. It has a feasibility study currently showing approximately 90 one, two and three-bedroomed apartments plus extensive communal areas.
In the meantime, Adlington is actively selling off-plan at its recently launched marketing suite in nearby Kempston.
