Civitas Investment Management, which provides community healthcare and specialist education facilities, has announced that, following £73 million of acquisitions in December, it deployed £113 million of equity in the second half of 2023, acquiring or forward funding 22 UK specialist healthcare assets across 14 transactions.

The rental income is 100% government backed and is subject to annual indexation. The properties will enable 487 individuals to live in, or receive specialist education within, specialist real estate.

The investments included specialist supported properties leased to a mix of existing and new operators. The assets are located in Coventry, Margate, Newark, Worthing, Dunstable, Nottingham, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Arlesey and Colchester. The properties cater for adults with physical and mental health needs.

The investments also include special educational needs schools, acquired via sale and leaseback, providing children between aged five and 18 with specialist education support.

In addition, there was investment in neuro rehab homes located in Northampton, providing accommodation for adults with diseases, injury, or disorders of the nervous system, where they can undertake doctor-supervised programmes. And a learning disability care home in Wales provides accommodation for 15 adults. 

Civitas manages a £3.5 billion portfolio of more than 1,285 specialist healthcare and education assets in the UK and Sweden, with the capacity to provide community-based living and specialist education to over 9,360 individuals. The care, support and education are provided by 219 operators in a combination of supported housing, residential care homes and specialist schools.

Andrew Dawber, group director of Civitas, said: “Against a backdrop of generally volatile markets and low transaction volumes across most real estate classes, Civitas has continued to drive forward its investment programmes on behalf of institutional clients, in an asset class that demonstrates strong social and environmental credentials, and which benefits from indexation and visible long-term income.

“Our programme of new build housing continues to expand to meet exceptional levels of demand. Working closely with specialist local developers and with local authority commissioners, Civitas seeks to deliver designated properties that meet specific identified needs within each local authority area. Our pipeline of projects remains strong as we enter 2024 and this reflects the evidence on the ground of increasing need for high-quality community-based facilities with an emphasis on working closely with local commissioning services and with leading care providers, housing managers and specialist developers.”