Legal & General later living business Inspired Villages has acquired a 12-acre site in Bedfordshire with planning permission for a 200-bed development.
The Caddington site is expected to have a gross development value of £120m, creating more than 70 construction jobs per annum over its six-year build period and 32 permanent jobs once complete.
The scheme will benefit from a restaurant, cafe, wellness centre - comprising a swimming pool, fitness studio and gym - library and cinema room. Many of these facilities will be available to both residents and the local community.
Inspired Villages development director Neal Dale said: “Our retirement community model focuses on holistic wellbeing, which means this scheme will offer a high quality later living experience that will help older people live healthy, independent lives for longer.”
“We have worked alongside the landowner over the last 18 months in achieving this milestone and now look forward to progressing matters to a start on site early next year,” he added.
Inspired Villages development pipeline stands at 2,500 homes across the UK in the next six years with total capital commitments of around £500m.
The company said there are more than 12m over-65s in the UK and this figure is expected to increase by 50% over the next 20 years.
With only 7,000 units being delivered to market each year, the disparity between supply and demand is vast, it added.
Phil Bayliss, chief executive of Later Living at Legal & General, said: “We have an extraordinary opportunity to deliver homes and support a lifestyle that will really change the way we age in the UK. Our focus is not solely about how to extend lifespan and more about how we can extend our health span, improving the quality of life we already have.”
