A project in the affluent Surrey town of Godalming has transformed a listed cow shed as part of a group of vibrant apartments. Mark Smulian explores how Birchgrove is redefining retirement living with a strong sense of community in a flexible build-to-rent model.
It may be a surprising move to invite retired people to live in a former cow shed, but this historic listed structure forms part of the new build-to-rent (BTR)apartments on offer at Birchgrove’s fifth assisted living development, in Godalming, Surrey.
The cows have long since vacated the building, but it is Grade II listed and so had to be preserved when Birchgrove bought the 1.02 acres site for redevelopment as Pepperpot House, its latest assisted living facility.
Unlike most retirement accommodation, here apartments are rented rather than sold, an approach which Birchgrove says offers retired people a more flexible and economic way of accessing accommodation where they can call on help when needed. Although Pepperpot House is not a care home, it comes complete with a 24-hour concierge service.
Birchgrove judged the site a sound choice as it is near Godalming high street – and its location also offered the prospect of an accessible flat roof to take advantage of commanding views over the Surrey countryside. The site was also – apart from the cow shed – a brownfield vacant since 2017 that required only the demolition of a former warehouse used by the locally well-known Mole Country Stores agricultural business. Birchgrove acquired the site in 2020.
Development manager Tom Webb explains the provenance further: “The old cow shed building dates back to the 17th century, and has been converted to two one-bed apartments, retaining some listed features though the exterior is unchanged.” The main building is of concrete frame, with bricks selected to match closely the listed brick facade of the cow shed.
Webb says: “We’ve got the existing listed building, which we wanted to match the new builds with as much as possible.” Pepperpot House is mostly arranged over four storeys, rising in part to five. It has a flat roof with a terrace accessible by the residents, where a bar allows people to have a relaxing drink while admiring the views.
Only about half of the roof space is accessible however, as it also houses air source heat pumps and photovoltaic cells on its far side. Heating is via a mixture of these heat pumps and gas fired boilers though within the apartments everything is electric. Energy is purchased solely from renewable tariffs. Also, at the request of planning authority Waverley Borough Council, 20% of the parking area is reserved for electric vehicles and charging facilities.
Construction started in October 2022, lasting until November 2024. “It’s a really good looking building,” Webb enthuses. “The roof terrace is quite unique for the area of Godalming, there are fantastic views of the town and surrounding Surrey Hills as it’s in an elevated position.”
Tailored design
The architect used was TDC Architects, chosen by main contractor Natta Building for being well versed in the creation of healthcare-oriented buildings. Natta also appointed mechanical and electrical subcontractor Touch Building Services. Other notable contributors to the project appointed by Birchgrove included Aecom as employers agent and quantity surveyor; Couch Perry & Wilkes (M&E technical monitoring), and Devon Interiors.
Birchgrove does not work to a standard design for its developments – since it must respond to each site. Webb adds, however: “We’ve learned from previous projects around kitchen access, making domestic equipment easier for residents to use with more accessible drawer positions.”
All apartments include waist-height kitchen appliances, ensuite walk-in showers and simple switches, taps and plugs. Doors and corridors are wheelchair accessible for better freedom of movement. Kitchens and bathrooms are not pre-fabricated, as development director Russ Beresford explains: “There’s no use of modular in it. That only really works when you’ve got all the same apartment types, but there are some variations here. That meant modular really wasn’t the best solution.” He also says that at only 52 apartments, the development didn’t provide the scale required to make modular viable for Birchgrove: “When you’ve got a larger scale then modular makes more sense,” but adds, notwithstanding this, “you can still get some quite good buying power from suppliers at our scale.”
Subcontractors
Birchgrove does not directly employ a building workforce, but chooses contractors as needed, and is not in any long term formal partnerships. Beresford says the company uses a design guide for the interiors, which covers the quality of kitchens, bathrooms, and size of amenity space contractors need to follow. This includes a restaurant, a lounge, libraries, and a small gym, “but this is not an identikit design that you can pick up and build anywhere,” says Beresford. He adds that “we really believe in outdoor spaces.”
He continues: “Planning obviously dictates the kind of massing that you can have on a site. The visual appearance of the facade needs to respond to the local vernacular as well and work with the town and the setting that you’re in.”
While the developer uses size guides to dictate the amenities’ look and feel to a degree, he adds they “like to have some local context so we respond to where we build, and adapt it slightly.” He adds that while “you’ll see some similarities” in the firm’s developments, “there are definitely some differences in terms of visual appearance, both internally and externally.”
Contractors are appointed partly on having the right attitude towards Birchgrove’s approach rather than simply on price, says the development director. Beresford comments: “You can make some very bad decisions if you just go on price. We want to work with like-minded and forward thinking dynamic contractors that want to work with us on the projects and not just deliver and say ‘see you later’.” He adds: “We want to build relationships with a small pool of main contractors and consultants.”
Long-term approach
Building accommodation for rent means that – unlike a conventional developer – Birchgrove cannot simply finish a job and walk away. It has to offer long-term management and maintenance and will engage contractors as needed for the latter. Beresford says the firm puts a lot of stock into investing into an area as a long-term partner in the community, but this means “you have to have various expertise in your company to continually manage as a developer and operator,” he says.
Beresford details the approach further: “We have a long-term outlook – providing a high-quality building, appropriately designed, and working with the local communities, and we like to integrate our buildings into the towns we operate in.” He reinforces the message: “We’re not a ‘build it and leave developer,’ community outreach is important to us.”
The demographics of the catchment area was the key factor for choosing Godalming; it was deemed to hold sufficient demand among older people to support a development of this size. Residents normally tend to come from the surrounding area of a Birchgrove development rather than moving to the location from long distances.
Beresford said the firm does a lot of analysis before choosing a site: “We can’t think ‘we’re going to build 300 units and it’s going to be fine, we’ll be able to lease them all.’ We need to be very analytical about the number of units we build to ensure that we can lease them.”
The research includes looking at the available market size and demographics in the area concerned, and Godalming, he says, “ticks all those boxes.” Beresford continues: “We had enough people of the age group that we’re interested in that will be needing the type of products that we provide.”
Customer focus
People who move into the developments tend to be owners of houses that may have become too large for them, or which have lots of stairs, or perhaps where people now only actively occupy a small part of their home. Beresford says: “Our tenants can now live in an age-appropriate, higher quality, modern apartment with peace of mind and just pay one bill, and their families can be sure their relations can be looked after, and be safe,” he explains.
There are 22 layouts to choose from in Pepperpot House’s apartments of which a typical one-bedroom option has a floor area ranging from 57.1 to 64.3 m2, while the two-bedroom option covers 73.3 to 91.2 m2. The rental basis of Birchgrove’s business is relatively rare in a sector more commonly geared to selling apartments, but the company believes it is onto a winning formula which works for customers and that will drive a steady construction programme as it seeks out more sites.
Beresford comments further on the benefits of the BTR model: “We believe rental is a bit cheaper and more flexible for people. They can just write one cheque per month for the rent which covers the service charge and monthly activities, plus the gym and other communal facilities.” When the company was founded, he says, offering rental was a key differentiator which is appropriate for later life: “There was only the purchase option available to older people, and rental gave people more choice.”
“Our average age of tenant is 82,” he explains; “most people are not really looking to buy another product at that age.” He adds: “In our developments they can age in place and not have the hassle of maintaining an existing home with all the stresses associated with a house, garden, having to navigate stairs, and operate in a kitchen that’s most probably not suitable for an older person.”
Older people are not of course necessarily inactive, and this has seen Birchgrove to seek out sites which are in and around towns, which consequently tend to be brownfield. People still want to access local services so building on a remote greenfield site would be unlikely to attract custom.
The company’s chief executive Honor Barratt has big ambitions, and wants “a Birchgrove in every town” in the long term. For now, the developer is seeking sites in the south east near the M25, where all its existing development can be found.
Pepperpot House is the company’s fifth completed scheme and it also recently opened Ayrton House in Mill Hill, its first in Greater London. It has four projects under construction in Hampton, Leatherhead, Banstead and Chiswick.
Beresford says: “We’re actively searching for more sites, we’re trying to build a pipeline to progress through this year and into the next few years,” and the south east remains the focus for this initial growth phase.
He asserts that the company’s work is not “just about getting land and churning out as many apartments as we can from land,” adding that socialisation is a big focus: “A fundamental part of what we offer is communal living for older people who are looking to move out of one environment into ours, and socialisation is fundamental to their health and wellbeing and integral to everything that we do.”
While he acknowledges that loneliness is “a big problem, especially for some of the older demographics that haven’t got family around them or their friends have passed away,” it is being addressed in the firm’s schemes such as Pepperpot House. “People here have that ability to make new connections, and it helps them to live longer.”
Safety is always a top priority in accommodation for older people, and Pepperpot House has AI-assisted technology in the form of Nobi Smart Lamps in every room which include sensors and alert staff if – for example – someone has suffered a fall. Residents are also given smart watches which allow emergency calls to be made anywhere.
Conclusion
Demand proved to be strong at Pepperpot House, with 40% of apartments pre-let off plan. Honor Barratt of Birchgrove says: “We’re delighted that so many of the apartments at Pepperpot House have been snapped up in advance of opening. It helps that we were able to secure such a central location and we’re really pleased to have been able to bring a disused site back to life.”
She concludes that much of the reason for the success of the scheme so far commercially “is that we were able to show prospective residents our other thriving local communities to give them an idea of what it’s like to live in one of our developments.” Barratt continues: “We believe we’re firmly on a roll now and are confident we can achieve even higher pre-let rates as we roll our successful rental retirement living model out further across the country.”
The accommodation market for older people has long been centred around selling apartments, and some have proven problematic when occupiers or their heirs wish to sell, given the somewhat limited demand. By contrast, Birchgrove’s rental model is designed to overcome this, and if it becomes as attractive as the company expects, it will open up a new stream of work for housebuilders.