Carlyle has bought UK senior housing developer Beechcroft, becoming the latest large private equity firm to target the sector.

The latest €540M European real estate fund of U.S. investor Carlyle has bought Beechcroft from private equity investor Alchemy Partners. Carlyle said it entered the sector to take advantage of the demographic support provided by an ageing population.

Lone Star agreed a deal last month to buy retirement home developer McCarthy & Stone for £630M, although that deal still needs approval from McCarthy’s shareholders.

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Founded 35 years ago, Beechcroft builds for-sale senior housing for the over 55s, with a portfolio concentrated in Greater London and south east England. Beechcroft covers the entire development value chain including site sourcing, design and planning, construction, and sales, Carlyle said.

The senior demographic is forecast to grow significantly faster than the rest of the UK population, and the low-care senior housing segment has proven to date to be very resilient through the current environment, the company added in a press release. There is also the opportunity to further scale and expand the Beechcroft platform given the size and fragmentation of the senior housing market.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but the most recent accounts filed at Companies House for Beechcroft, covering the year to April 2019, show that the company produced revenue of £43M and operating profit of £2.2M, from the sale of 69 units.