Puma Property Finance commits £33m funding to build three new care home developments

By Bridging Loan Directory 14th November 2022

Puma Property Finance (Puma) has today announced it is providing over £33m of development funding to finance three separate care homes in Oxfordshire, West Sussex and Cambridgeshire, in its continued support for the care sector.

In Oxfordshire and West Sussex, one care home operator will lead the development of both sites, creating spacious ensuite bedrooms, with a variety of facilities from communal spaces to hair salons.

The development in Cambridgeshire will be carried out by another care home operator to create a 69-bed care home set across three floors with fully equipped ensuite wet-rooms.

All three of these latest developments were carefully chosen given the significant demand in each respective area. The West Sussex location, for example, has a shortage of 600 ensuite bedrooms within a 5-mile radius.

Puma has a strong track record funding essential social infrastructure such as care homes and has funded over 1,800 beds to date with a value of over £380m. A recent report from Knight Frank projected that there could be the need for as many as 350,000 care beds by 2050.

Further to this, the long term demographic pressures underpinning the care sector offer some reassurance at a time of such challenging economic outlook.

The continued commitment of capital to the care sector comes at a time when there is ever-growing demand for care homes in the UK and Puma is looking to make a tangible difference to tackle this issue.

The UK is heavily undersupplied in this sector, with estimations that 14 care homes are closing every month.

As such, Puma continues actively to seek and invest in opportunities to support and develop high-quality, purpose-built projects within the UK healthcare market.

Tony Throp, Director at Puma Property Finance, who led the three deals comments:

“We’re delighted to support these three critical developments to help address the severe shortage of high-quality care homes in this country.

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on the number of care homes that are no longer fit for purpose or able to cope in such extreme circumstances, further highlighting the need for development in the sector.

This has led to a real drive to develop modern purpose-built care homes to enhance the wellbeing of residents and ensure high quality care provision; a goal we can support through the provision of private capital.

We believe this is integral to the future of the sector, and can provide an abundance of growth possibilities for care operators and developers alike.

We’re also pleased as the developments have, and continue to provide, additional employment opportunities for the local community whether through the construction process or direct employment in the homes themselves.”