UK’s Later Living Momentum: Recovery, Expansion and a New Wave of Investment

Navigating Capital Flows, Debt Markets and building resilient investment models in the UK's senior living sector

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  Raphaël Koifman

  Raphael has over 20 years of experience in the Real estate sector, joining Birchgrove two years ago. He started his career at Barclays Capital, then worked for a number of leading UK lenders over 10 years before joining a privately-owned property company as CFO. Over the years, he has led numerous capital-raising transactions across the capital stack and helped companies grow and scale-up across the beds, sheds and operational real estate sectors.

  Birchgrove

  Chief Financial Officer

  Raphaël Koifman

  Chief Financial Officer

  Birchgrove

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  Duncan Collins

  Strategic Finance Director

  Mccarthy & Stone

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  Domas Karsokas

  Domas joined Octopus in 2016. He focuses on growing Octopus’s retirement living strategy, with time split between fundraising, origination and execution. Domas previously worked at Henley Investments and EY. He has an MSc and BSc in Economics from the University of Sheffield, and is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst.

  Octopus Capital

  Investment Director

  Domas Karsokas

  Investment Director

  Octopus Capital

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  Sally Ireland

  Sally Ireland is a barrister and as Director of Legal and Compliance at ARCO, she oversees ARCO’s regulation of Integrated Retirement Communities in addition to leading ARCO’s work to develop the law to allow for further expansion of the sector. She also supports the Board as ARCO’s Company Secretary.

  ARCO

  Director of Legal & Compliance

  Sally Ireland

  Director of Legal & Compliance

  ARCO

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  Anthony Oldfield

  Anthony is a leading expert in the care home and retirement living property markets having worked in the UK healthcare and later living market for over 15 years. Anthony is a Director with particular responsibility for facilitating investment into the later living market, for clients, through new sites, forward funding opportunities, disposals, and acquisitions of operational healthcare assets and real estate backed businesses. He is also a trustee of Brunelcare who operate a number of care home and extracare housing facilities in and around Bristol. When he is not working he enjoys leading a small group at church, walking the family dog and trying to keep up with his son on the parkrun!

  JLL

  Director - Healthcare Capital Markets

  Anthony Oldfield

  Director - Healthcare Capital Markets

  JLL

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  Lizzie Pillinger

  Lizzie is a Partner who acts for a range of promoters, developers, investors and operators in the private and public sectors. Her focus is on the living sector, particularly later living and private investment into affordable housing. Lizzie has led the Trowers real estate teams on some key joint ventures in the later living arena, as well as complex site acquisition and assembly for later living, affordable housing and build to rent investors and operators. She is one of the firm's key contacts for later living. Having trained in the UK's no.1 social housing firm and spent time in-house working with one of the leading private investors into affordable housing she has an acute understanding of the benefits and challenges of this arena. Lizzie's experience acting for stakeholders on different sides of the table gives her an efficient outlook and ability to spot issues early in a transaction. Her goal is always to achieve a commercial result whilst protecting her clients' interests.

  Trowers & Hamlins

  Partner

  Moderator

  Lizzie Pillinger

  Partner

  Trowers & Hamlins

Developing Later Living: Meeting Housing Demand and Health Needs

Aligning Senior Living Development with Housing Policy and Healthcare Priorities

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  Gary Burton

  Gary joined Audley Group in 2020 as CFO, bringing a strategic focus on financial efficiency, securing new debt facilities, and establishing new joint venture partnerships to support continuing growth.  In 2022, he was appointed COO, while retaining his CFO responsibilities, and expanded his remit to include Operations and People. Since stepping into the dual role, Gary has led a transformation of Audley’s operating model to enhance operational efficiency and elevate customer experience. With over 25 years of international experience, Gary has built a diverse and impactful career across multiple sectors having held various senior finance, treasury and board level positions. His early career included roles at Arthur Andersen, where he qualified as an accountant, and Hewlett Packard, where he qualified in Treasury.  Gary holds degrees in both Architecture and Management.

  Audley Group

  COO and CFO

  Gary Burton

  COO and CFO

  Audley Group

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  Steve Bangs

  Steve Bangs, CEO of Pegasus Homes - brings over 30 years of experience in construction and residential development, with leadership roles at Berkeley Homes, the Linden Group, and then as a founding Director at Anthology before its merger with Pegasus in 2019. Under his strategic direction, Pegasus – a leading provider of later living communities - now has thousands of residents across 40 communities in England, delivering and operating high-quality later living homes in both the sale and rental markets. Steve’s leadership is driving Pegasus’s transition toward becoming the UK’s leading build-to-rent developer for the over 60s, reflecting deep expertise in both tenure types and a growing pipeline of rental-led later living communities.

  Pegasus Homes

  CEO

  Steve Bangs

  CEO

  Pegasus Homes

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  Phillippa Hardman

  Phillippa is a leading wellbeing expert. She brings a global perspective derived from research and projects undertaken in the UK, USA, Middle East, and worldwide. She specialises in the early-stage development, design, and operation of wellbeing and fitness amenity spaces within the residential property sector. Phillippa founded Educated Body in 2001. Educated Body is widely acknowledged as the market leader in residential real estate health fitness and wellbeing, for its specialist knowledge of operational design and current and future wellbeing trends. “At Educated Body, we feel privileged to be able to connect our passion with our purpose,” says Hardman. “There is no doubt our desire to create unprecedented wellbeing services inspires our residents to healthier, more mindful, more balanced lives.” This passion for wellbeing runs deep. Phillippa has always had, and retains to this day, a keen interest in health, fitness and wellbeing. Following a highly successful career in dance, originally as a ballet dancer and then three years dancing with the famous Hot Gossip group, she became one of London’s first personal trainers, specialising in Pilates, with an enviable celebrity client base. Educated Body has consulted on over 125 schemes and has 50 wellbeing and fitness contracts under management spanning build to rent, build to sell, and corporate.

  Educated Body

  Founder & CEO

  Phillippa Hardman

  Founder & CEO

  Educated Body

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  Rachel Davis

  Rachel is primarily responsible for strategic growth at Perega, a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy. She has over 25 years’ experience in various facets of the construction industry, including 16 years focused on offsite construction with Algeco Group and Premier Modular, prior to joining Perega in 2019. Rachel has a strong understanding of structural and civil engineering principles, enabling her to engage confidently with technical teams and other construction professionals. Her broad knowledge spans key areas such as market understanding, key sector drivers, growth strategies, commercial awareness, regulatory requirements, and sustainability standards. This balance of technical and business understanding enhances her ability to align development strategies with the complex requirements of engineering-led projects. Rachel is also skilled in improving business processes, project management, training and staff engagement which she utilises to help drive Perega’s strategic alignment with clients, suppliers and design team partners.

  Perega

  Director

  Rachel Davis

  Director

  Perega

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  Sarah Walker

  Sarah is a Partner in the Real Estate team at Travers Smith with a particular focus and considerable experience in the investment into and development of housing and healthcare for the later living sector. She has acted for investors, developers and operators, such as long-standing clients CareTrust REIT plc (formerly Impact REIT) and McCarthy Stone. This includes being an early contributor to the Government's plans around Commonhold and Leasehold Reform. Older people's housing and care is a subject close to Sarah's heart and one in which she brings a great deal of understanding and expertise, having worked in the sector for many years. Sarah is a member of the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF), the leading body for non-listed real estate funds, and currently sits on an AREF D&I Working Group committee. Sarah is also a member of the BPF and Women in Property, as well as the City of London Law Society's Land Law Committee.

  Travers Smith

  Partner

  Moderator

  Sarah Walker

  Partner

  Travers Smith

Presentation

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  Marcus Dixon

  Marcus Dixon is Head of UK Living & Residential Research at JLL, bringing over 20 years of experience in the sector. He specialises in market analysis, strategic planning, and advising on residential and living investment opportunities. Marcus' insightful research and data-driven approach have made him a trusted advisor for clients navigating the complexities of the UK market. With a profound understanding of market trends and dynamics, he frequently speaks at industry conferences and contributes to key publications.

  JLL

  Head of UK Living & Residential Research

  Marcus Dixon

  Head of UK Living & Residential Research

  JLL