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UK’s largest retirement home builder registers affordable housing arm

McCarthy Stone, the UK’s largest retirement housing developer, has registered with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to become a for-profit social landlord.  

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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The country’s largest provider of retirement housing has launched its own affordable arm after registering with the English regulator #UKhousing

According to a list of new registrations from the RSH, published yesterday, McCarthy Stone (Shared Ownership) Limited was registered on 4 February 2021. It is the first major house builder to register with the English regulator since Galliford Try registered Linden First in 2013.

McCarthy Stone said that the move is a key part of its long-term strategy and would allow them to offer customers increased choice of tenure, including affordable shared ownership.

It follows a growing trend of private companies registering affordable housing businesses. Data released by the regulator on Tuesday highlighted this growing trend, with it recording a 75% increase in the number of social housing homes own by for-profit providers in 2020.


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The figures showed that in the 12 months to March 2020, for-profit providers owned 9,000 homes shared across 49 landlords, up from 5,342 in the previous year.

McCarthy Stone, which has built 56,000 homes in the UK across 1,200 developments, was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with sales nearly halving in the first half of 2020/21. However, the retirement specialist was acquired by US private equity giant Lone Star Real Estate Fund for £647m late last year.

The group recently rebranded as McCarthy Stone, dropping the ampersand from its brand name.

McCarthy Stone is the second organisation to register a for-profit provider in 2021, after New York and London-based real estate investment trust Meadow Partners registered MP Living with the RSH in late January.

FTSE-listed McCarthy Stone also struck a deal with fellow retirement home specialist Anchor Hanover last October to deliver 482 homes across five large-scale sites with a development value of £125m.

There was a flurry of smaller developers that registered as providers in 2018, with the majority of these making the move so that they can retain affordable housing homes on development sites, due to difficulties striking deals with housing associations on certain projects. The largest builder to sign up during this wave was the £166m-turnover firm Hopkins Homes.

Other high-profile for-profit landlords that have registered in recent years include insurance giant Legal & General, whose L&G Affordable Homes arm works alongside 14 housing associations to manage its portfolio, and Sage Housing, which is owned by major global investment firm Blackstone.

A spokesperson for McCarthy Stone said: “We are pleased that McCarthy Stone (Shared Ownership) Limited, our application to provide affordable shared ownership on our developments, has been approved by the Regulator of Social Housing.

“This is a key part of our long-term strategy to offer our customers increased choice of tenure and help more people access the many benefits of living in high-quality retirement and extra-care housing.

“In future we will be able to offer our customers a full range of tenures, including affordable shared ownership, outright ownership, private rent and private shared ownership.”

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