Audley Court - October 2008
MREFII acquired Audley following several years of research into the retirement housing sector.
Audley is one of the UK’s leading developers and operators of Independent Living facilities for the elderly. The group’s retirement villages typically provide apartments/bungalows and houses (‘accommodation’) on heritage sites and incorporate a feature building at the heart of the community to provide facilities that would normally be expected in a country house hotel, including extensive social and leisure facilities. Importantly, Audley also provides a domiciliary care service to the residents and people within the local community. This care service means that residents move in knowing they should not need to move again or be forced into a residential care home. This retirement village living therefore enables residents to retain their independence within a safe environment.
The group has a number of villages at different stages of development throughout the UK:
- One fully developed scheme, Willicombe Park, which is situated an hour from central London in Tunbridge Wells and has 67 apartments and cottages together with a club house that provides communal facilities and domiciliary care to residents.
- Four schemes under development in both the South East and the North of England: St Elphins Park in Matlock (127 units); Clevedon in Ilkley (98 units); Inglewood in Berkshire (96 units), Mote House in Kent (87 units).
- Four sites in the pipeline that either have planning or are in the planning process: St Georges in Edgbaston (90 units), College Road in Malvern (80 units), Binswood Avenue in Leamington Spa (90 units) and Chalfont St Peter (97 units).
In addition, the company manages two further schemes that it developed previously, the ownership of which remains outside the Audley group.
Key Features of Audley schemes include:
- Located in areas that have a sizeable affluent population and where the only nearby alternatives to a retirement village are a care home or relying on in-house help / domiciliary care.
- Villages have extensive communal facilities including a restaurant, spa, indoor pool and bar.
- Audley residents acquire their homes on long leases rather than rent them and pay a monthly management charge of c.£600, meaning that less capital is eroded than under rental models.
- Domiciliary care is provided on site to residents if required.
- All the accommodation has emergency alarms connected 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to the onsite care service.
- Audley staff are trained to remain vigilant to care requirements without imposing regimes or restricting privacy.
The Audley Group is headed by Nick Sanderson who has several decades of experience in the development of care facilities and acts as Chair of the Association of Retirement Village Operators, UK.