Newcastle Independent Living

Everyone deserves the comfort and security of home. But as people transition through their later years, stability becomes increasingly challenging to achieve. Older generations need homes that can adapt as their care needs grow, with designs where flexibility comes built in.

Newcastle City Council faces pressure on its resources like never before – and its elderly population is growing. So providing homes of this calibre at scale called for a new approach. The answer was an innovative funding model believed to be the first of its kind used by a local authority in England. 

The Annuity Lease Back Model enables the council to build new council housing while minimising financial outlay. The model works as follows: council-owned land is leased to a development partner, who finances, designs and builds new houses on it to agreed standards. The properties are then leased back to the council over a 40-year period, with the council owning all the properties at the end.

Kajima led a consortium to finance, design and construct this £20m project. Our team worked with Waypoint Investment Management, a real estate asset manager specialising in bespoke investment strategies, and Tolent Living, one of the North East’s biggest construction companies. 

Residents moved into the first homes on Newbiggin Lane in Westerhope in November 2019, soon joined by four more sites across the city. In total, Newcastle Independent Living comprises 148 high-quality and affordable homes in Newcastle’s West End, 58 Tyneside flats, 16 bungalows, 22 sheltered apartments and 52 assisted living apartments. Newcastle Independent Living has been so successful that a second phase is already underway to deliver an additional 199 homes.