Care home development sites
Purpose-built care homes are the core of what SMR Land does. Operators need sites with the right catchment, the right size and a realistic route to consent; landowners often have exactly that without knowing it. We sit between the two.
The sector
A modern care home is a purpose-built building of roughly 60 to 80 en-suite bedrooms with wet rooms, communal lounges and dining on each floor, and parking for staff and visitors. It usually occupies between one and three acres and needs to be within easy reach of the community it serves. Residents rarely walk out to the shops, so what matters is that staff and visitors can reach it easily, ideally by bus, and that it can be seen from a main road.
Demand is driven by the number of people over 85 in the catchment and the age and quality of the existing homes around them. In many towns across the North West of England and North Wales the existing stock is converted Victorian housing that cannot meet current standards, which is why operators want new sites.
For a landowner, a care home is often a better planning prospect than housing: it falls under use class C2 rather than C3, it is supported by an evidenced local need, and it generates less traffic and less objection than a housing estate of similar footprint.
What SMR Land looks for
Indicative criteria. A site that misses one of them is still worth a conversation.
- Site size
- 1 to 3 acres
- Scheme size
- 60 to 80 beds, single building, two or three storeys
- Location
- Edge of a town centre, with amenities nearby, ideally on a bus route for staff and visitors and with main road frontage
- Planning
- Brownfield or greenfield, with or without consent. Redundant commercial sites, former institutional buildings and well-located fields are all of interest
- Tenure
- Freehold preferred. Long leasehold considered
- Structure
- Unconditional purchase, conditional contract subject to planning, or option
Terms explained
The words operators and agents use, in plain English.
- C2 use class
- The planning category for residential institutions, including care homes. A site needs C2 consent, or a change of use to C2, before a care home can be built or run on it.
- Purpose-built
- Designed and built as a care home from the start, rather than converted from a house or hotel. Operators and the Care Quality Commission expect purpose-built accommodation.
- En-suite wet rooms
- Every bedroom has its own level-access shower room. It is the market standard and affects the floor area a scheme needs.
- Market-standard beds
- The number of bedrooms a scheme needs to be viable to build and run. In most locations that is at least 60.
- Catchment demand
- The number of people within a short drive who are likely to need residential or nursing care, set against the beds already available. Operators and councils both assess it.
- Operator covenant
- The financial strength of the company that will run the home. A strong operator makes the finished building worth more to an investor, which feeds back into what the land is worth.
- Conditional contract
- A contract to buy the land that only completes if planning permission is granted. The landowner keeps the land if consent is refused.
- Unconditional contract
- A straightforward sale that completes whether or not planning is granted. It is simpler and faster but the price reflects the buyer taking the planning risk.
How SMR Land helps
For operators and developers
Retained searches for sites that fit a bed-number and catchment brief, first-stage appraisals, and negotiation of terms that work for a planning-led purchase.
For landowners
An honest view on whether your land suits a care home, a structure that protects you from planning risk, and a sale to an operator or developer who will complete.
For investors
Consented sites with an operator in place or in prospect, and the commercial context to assess them.
Related services
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Whether you own land, act for someone who does, or need sites for a scheme, you deal with us directly from the first conversation, straightforward and without obligation.
Seb Morris
Founder and Director