- AHH is renowned for providing innovative
solutions for healthy, affordable retirement living through its unique offering
of beautiful age-friendly communities, bespoke healthcare and lifestyle
services, and innovative home ownership options;
- Demand for retirement housing outweighs
supply: over 11,000 new extra care units need to be built each year
by 2026 to keep up with demand, yet only 3,220 have been built annually for the
last decade;
- AHH has a blue-chip
executive team and long-standing strategic partnerships with government,
representing a safe and secure ESG
investment opportunity;
- Forsters’ Real Estate
Finance team, led by partner Victoria Edwards, advised OakNorth on the transaction.
In a clear demonstration of support for the UK’s housing
and healthcare sectors,
OakNorth has completed
a £60m loan to
Affordable
Housing & Healthcare Group (AHH) to fund the development of
three new affordable retirement living schemes in Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.
The sites have over 400 units between them and will be built with a range of communal facilities and services including: a convenience
store, hair salon, treatment rooms, fitness and activity suite, bistro/bar, private
lounge and dining and a dedicated lifestyle management team providing care and wellbeing
services. New homes are purchased on a government-backed shared ownership
basis, reducing the cost of home ownership for last-time buyers.
This
new deal represents an alignment of values shared by OakNorth and AHH. Both
organisations are committed to ESG which is clearly demonstrated through the
delivery of much-needed communities that boost the long-term prosperity of
local economies; provide new affordable homes and healthcare facilities; reduce
the strain on public health and social services; with the reassurance of AHH’s governance
provided from its blue-chip executive team and strategic government partners.
Julian Shaffer,
CEO of AHH: “We focus on affordable housing and
healthcare solutions in sectors where there is a growing need and a shortage of
supply. Working in partnership with government we specialise in the delivery
and operations of affordable supported retirement communities and premium elderly
healthcare infrastructure. With this finance from OakNorth, we’ll be able to
have a positive impact on hundreds of people’s lives and bring some much-needed
new affordable retirement communities to these counties. Matt and the team at
OakNorth took the time to understand our business and have structured a very
tailored lending facility that will massively support our growth ambitions
going forward.”
Matt Leahy, Director, Debt Finance at OakNorth, said: “This part of the housing market in
the UK is clearly underserved and AHH are delivering a
unique proposition that is purely focused around a needs-based model. No
developer in this space of the market is delivering high quality schemes that
fully cater for the broad residential needs of older people both physically (on
site high service provision amenities), socially (creating communities) and
financially (shared equity options on purchase). Julian, David and the team
have successfully built the Group and its companies over the last 20 years and
are ready to propel the business to the next level. This is a complicated peak
debt lending facility incorporating several retirement schemes at different
stages of their development. We won the lending tender based on the structure
we proposed and our clear understanding of their business. We are all delighted to support AHH and look
forward to building our relationship with them going forward.”