Having attended Bisnow’s Later Living Conference, which gathered professionals from across later living real estate to discuss the outlook for the sector, Coverdale Barclay’s Account Director Alexander Peel recounts the event and offers his thoughts.
There were two fascinating panel discussions at Bisnow’s Later Living Conference, the first centring on investment trends and the second on best practice for creating communities.
In many ways, the sector feels like it is at an important juncture, similar to the emergence of build-to-rent as an institutional asset class in the UK in the early 2010s. Buoyed by the publication of Older People’s Housing Taskforce report last week, which contained a number of key policy recommendations that would help support the sector, all in the room understood the strong market dynamics and tailwinds that make later living a convincing long-term bet.
However, the asset class is still in its nascency. Developers and operators are looking for the right business models, financing arrangements and tenure types that will allow the sector the scale up and start to snowball, as has worked in more mature markets internationally.
This leaves room for innovation in the sector – and the businesses that are able to convincingly demonstrate they’ve got the formula right will have an outsize impact as the market grows. Untold Living, for example, has spotted a gap in the mid-market and is creating a product that will help solve one of the biggest challenges the sector is facing: affordability for consumers.
Watch this space as the sector comes into its own in the coming years.
