The U.K.'s first gay retirement community is to be built at Whalley Range, Manchester.

The retirement community plan, first mooted in February 2017, is expected to have a limit on the number of heterosexual residents.

The site at Russell Road in Whalley Range will be the location for the U.K.’s first extra care scheme designed for older LGBT people.

In 2013, Manchester City Council commissioned research through the LGBT Foundation that indicated higher levels of loneliness and isolation amongst LGBT older people, and a lack of specific affordable accommodation where they can be open about their identity later in life.

Manchester’s LGBT population is growing and more than 7,000 people over the age of 50 identify as LGBT across the city. The number of LGBT people over the age of 65 is expected to rise significantly in the next 20 years.

The development in South Manchester will include around 77 extra care properties — half for affordable rent and half for outright sale — and although designed to support the care needs of older LGBT people, the scheme will be open to anyone aged 55 and over, although with the abovementioned limit in place.

A planning application will be submitted later this month.