Senior Living Investment Partners (SLIP), a £200 million partnership between Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), an insurer of defined benefit pension schemes, and Octopus Real Estate, a real estate lender and investor, is investing in an integrated retirement community (IRC) in Brent Cross Town in North London.

This marks SLIP’s third retirement community investment and the second with Audley Group, a provider of IRCs, following the acquisition of the Headley Court site in Leatherhead, Surrey, announced last month.

The joint venture between Audley and SLIP has agreed to acquire the long leasehold interest in a plot within the Brent Cross Town masterplan on which to develop a new retirement village as part of Audley Group’s Mayfield Villages. Brent Cross Town will be the second Mayfield Village, and the first to be developed in London.

The site has outline planning permission and will deliver 147 retirement units along with 14,627 square feet of amenities. The scheme is part of the Brent Cross Town development, a 180-acre masterplan.

Nick Sanderson, chief executive of Audley Group, said: “The demand for retirement villages continues to grow, and with an ageing population there is an urgent need to build more units. Mixed use developments which include integrated retirement living are vital to create vibrant, intergenerational communities.”

Kevin Beirne, head of retirement at Octopus Real Estate, commented: “To have an IRC at the centre of such an impactful regeneration project is a fantastic result for the wider later-living sector. The net zero credentials of this scheme are laudable and demonstrate our commitment to helping the UK meet its net zero by 2050 target. It’s fitting too that a retirement village benefits from this; older people spend more time in their homes than any other cohort. The efficiency of these new homes will deliver real value for residents in the form of thermal comfort and lower energy bills.

“Through our SLIP partnership with PIC, we aim to deliver some of the highest quality developments the later-living sector has ever seen, with a drive towards both carbon efficiency and significant health and wellbeing benefits for the UK’s older population. This scheme is a great example of that.”