News

‘New building land is key to growth' says CEO

McCarthy & Stone today announced the first phase of an expansion programme that will see its output of new homes double in the next five years.

Already Britain's largest provider of private retirement apartments, the company will diversify into new areas including ‘total care' developments offering a range of tailored support services including nursing care.

"Our goals are limited only by the availability of land," said Chief Executive Howard Phillips. "We are stepping up our acquisition rate and constantly on the lookout for new sites suitable for all of our development models."

The company's Assisted Living division, launched some seven years ago to advance a modern housing solution for older homeowners needing a high level of support but without formal nursing care, is targeted as a key area for growth.

This will be achieved by geographic expansion outside the South East, where most of its Assisted Living schemes have so far been built, and driven by the launch of operation centres in the Midlands and South West.

McCarthy & Stone, which recently topped a Government-led customer satisfaction survey of British housebuilders, is also researching other new products and services designed to meet the needs of the elderly, Britain's fastest-growing population sector.

As a first step, customers are being offered on a trial basis a fast-track service for moving home at a difficult time of life. McCarthy & Stone will do virtually all of the work needed in the home buying, selling and moving process.

Mr Phillips said: "The aim of all our developments is to allow every resident to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible.

"The traditional residential home and nursing home still have a place, but with around two-thirds of the retired generation now property owners, we believe our range of products will become the 21^st century's answer to a new social phenomenon - the equity-rich pensioner who wants a real home of their own in supportive surroundings."

McCarthy & Stone's conventional retirement apartments, on which the company has built its brand-leading name over the last 30 years, will remain its core business, although the Assisted Living division and other new products are  expected to contribute a quarter of all its new stock by 2012.

By that time the company hopes to be building around 4,000 units a year - double its current output.

Mr Phillips said the expansion programme has been made possible by the confidence of its new owners - a consortium headed by HBOS - in the company's management team and the future of retirement housing and associated services.

For more information on McCarthy & Stone developments nationwide, call 0800 919132