Simply UK, the Glasgow-based real estate developer has secured a further €40m investment funding package from a European investor, to expand and develop its recently launched care home and retirement living division, branded as Morar Living.
The funding, which is subject to a non disclosure agreement, will bring a further investment injection into the business, in addition to the circa £50m the business has received over the past two years. It will be used to facilitate further expansion of the Morar Living portfolio of luxury state-of-the-art care homes in Scotland and across the rest of the UK.
Simply has ambitious growth plans and is now Scotland’s largest care home developer and is targeting having more than 1,000 beds across the UK by the end of 2022, with 350 beds coming to the market in 2021 and a further 500 beds during 2022.
Gary Sharp, Managing Director of Simply UK said:
“With the backdrop of Brexit, securing overseas investment is an enormous shot of confidence in the Scottish healthcare and senior living market.
This additional funding highlights the continued confidence that investors have in our business. It will provide the necessary finance to enable Simply to launch, sustain and develop high quality care homes through Morar Living. We aim to secure further funding in the region of £100m over the next two years.
“The sector continues to be a key growth area, as the UK’s ageing population continues to drive demand for more quality care homes and beds in this sector.
“Our aim is to develop exemplary new care homes, which provide safe and secure environments for our residents, to enable later life to be lived to the full.”
Linda Meston, Director of Care at Morar Living added:
“We are excited about our future development plans and the launch of the Morar Living brand, which will bring a much-needed supply of fully-compliant beds to the sector.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the fantastic efforts and dedication of our team, who successfully managed care through the lockdown.
“Our strict non-Covid admission policy, along with a range of other health and safety measures, including thermal imaging cameras, daily temperature checks and air flow management has ensured the health and well-being of our residents, whilst enabling our staff to work within a Covid-secure environment.”
Simply’s growing influence in the market was highlighted in a recent sector report of ‘Most Active Developers in 2020’ by health and social care sector specialists, Carterwood Research, that studied planning applications in England, Scotland and Wales that were granted or pending between June 2019 and June 2020. Simply was placed first in Scotland and sixth in the UK during this time period, with three schemes granted planning consent and two pending approval.
Morar Living currently has more than 200 beds over three new care homes in Scotland – Castlehill in Inverness, which opened earlier this year and Harbour House in Musselburgh and Bridge of Weir in Renfrewshire, which are scheduled to open in the coming weeks. A further three care homes are currently under construction at Perth, Stirling and Helensburgh and he group continue to work on a further 1000 beds throughout the UK.