UK: Birchgrove has opened its latest retirement living rental scheme,Pepperpot House in Godalming, Surrey.
Pepperpot House comprises 52 one- and two-bedroom self-contained rented apartments for independently minded people over 65.
Amenities include a 24-hour concierge service, café/restaurant, licensed bar, wellness suite, salon, and a landscaped roof terrace with a lounge offering views over Godalming to the Surrey Hills.
Located in the town centre, the site was previously home to Mole Country Stores, which had stood empty since September 2017.
As part of the redevelopment, the Grade II-listed cowshed at the entrance to the site was restored to provide two one-bedroom apartments.
The 40 per cent pre-let rate of the 1.02-acre Pepperpot House exceeds Birchgrove’s previous record for the percentage of apartments reserved prior to opening, with its Lower Mill development in Ewell having been 36% per centreserved when it opened in May 2022.
Honor Barratt, chief executive of Birchgrove, said: “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.
“We also know that much of the reason for our off-plan success here 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. 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,” she added.
Birchgrove operates four other retirement communities in the south-east. Among its operational developments is the recently opened Ayrton House in Mill Hill, Birchgrove’s first community in Greater London. The company also has four additional communities under construction, with new locations being developed in Hampton, Leatherhead, Banstead and Chiswick.
