Forward Funded Care Home Investments – Fully Managed

August 19, 2026

There is a big difference between paying to create a care property and buying one after somebody else has already created the income.

That difference is where forward funding becomes interesting.

At Foot Forward Property Investments, we specialise in developing fully managed, forward funded care properties across Children’s Care, Adult Residential Care and SEN Schools. We have been developing property for more than 34 years, so we approach these projects first and foremost as developers. The investment return matters, of course, but it only works if the property, the provider, the build cost, the planning position and the lease all line up properly before money starts going into the development.

Take a £500,000 project producing a 12% net yield. That gives the investor £60,000 per annum.

Now look at the same property after completion. It is finished, occupied by the provider and producing the £60,000 rent. A fund buying that income at an 8% net yield would pay £750,000. At 7%, the figure is around £857,000. At 6%, it is £1 million.

So somebody can quite literally pay twice the original development cost for the same underlying property simply because they are buying it after the lease income has been established.

We see this regularly in commercial property. Once an asset is producing income, buyers stop looking at it purely in terms of what the bricks, land and development actually cost. They start pricing the rent.

For a family office, fund or private investor with the ability to enter earlier, paying the operational premium is not always necessary. Forward funding gives them the opportunity to acquire the freehold asset at the development stage, then hold the income once the property has been completed and occupied.

There is also a tax angle. Buying a completed operational property at £750,000 or £1 million can create a materially larger Stamp Duty Land Tax liability than entering at a lower acquisition value, depending on how the transaction is structured. Lease SDLT may also apply when the lease is granted. We treat that as a one-off investor cost, and investors should always take their own tax advice on the exact position.

We Do Not Build First and Find a Provider Later

This is where forward funded care is often misunderstood.

A speculative developer might buy a property, carry out the conversion and then start looking for an operator after completion. We do not work that way.

We work with one care provider, and the investor signs an Agreement for Lease on the same day they purchase the property, before the development starts.

So the provider is already tied to the building.

The Agreement for Lease sets out the works and the agreed development period. The investor knows who will be taking the property, what is being developed and how the project is expected to progress before the first contractor starts work.

Cost is dealt with in much the same way.

We offer our Complete Price Lock Promise, meaning the development price is agreed upfront. Anyone who has spent years in property knows how damaging an open build budget can become. A project can look sensible on day one and start drifting badly once variations, materials, labour and unforeseen work begin piling up.

We do not want investors finding themselves halfway through a care development with a rising cost base and no idea where the final number will land.

The purpose of the structure is to remove as much of that uncertainty as possible before the works start.

What the Investor Owns, and What They Do Not Have to Run

The investor owns the property on a 100% freehold basis.

They fund the shell and the development, pay the annual bricks and mortar insurance, and cover the applicable lease SDLT as a one-off payment.

They are not expected to run a care home.

The provider deals with staffing, registration, regulation, the care operation and the day-to-day running of the service. Maintenance responsibilities sit within the lease structure, while planning and development are handled through Foot Forward.

The lease is structured around a 20-year term.

For investors who already understand commercial property, there is nothing especially exotic about the ownership side of the structure. You own the freehold building. A specialist operator occupies it. The rent is paid under the lease.

The difference is in the sector and in the amount of thought that has to go into the building before it reaches that point.

We Care About the Buildings We Deliver

We are genuinely proud of the care investments we develop.

That is not marketing language for us. These properties become real homes for children and adults, or schools for children with additional educational needs. People live there, sleep there, learn there and spend a large part of their lives inside these buildings.

So when we develop a Children’s Home or an Adult Residential Care property, our aim is very simple: it should feel like a home.

Not a unit. Not an institution. Not a commercial building that happens to have bedrooms in it.

There is an awful lot of work involved in getting that right because specialist care properties still have to deal with regulation, safety, durability, operational requirements and the practical needs of staff. Some of those requirements can easily make a building feel institutional if they are handled badly.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how those features are incorporated without dominating the environment.

You might have a requirement that is absolutely necessary from an operational or regulatory perspective, but there is often more than one way of putting it into a building. The easiest solution is not always the best solution for the person who is going to live there.

The same applies to layout. Bedrooms, communal areas, kitchens, staff spaces, circulation routes and outdoor areas all affect how the property feels once it is occupied. The people using the building do not see a development specification. They experience a home.

Our SEN School projects carry the same responsibility. A school has to work operationally, but children should not walk into a building that feels clinical or designed around compliance paperwork. The physical environment affects how people feel in the space, and that needs to be considered alongside the technical requirements.

A lot of what makes these buildings work well is barely noticeable when they are finished. That is usually a good sign. The regulatory and operational features are there, but they are not shouting at the person living or learning in the property.

That takes considerably more thought than simply getting a building through planning and completing a refurbishment schedule.

Why We Stay Within Specialist Care

We focus solely on Children’s Care, Adult Residential Care and SEN Schools because we prefer to work in sectors we understand rather than spreading ourselves across every possible type of property investment.

After more than 34 years in development, we know that specialist buildings punish shortcuts.

The property has to suit the provider. The planning needs to work. The build cost has to remain commercially sensible. The specification has to satisfy the intended use. The lease needs to stack up for the investor, and the finished building still needs to be a good place for somebody to live or learn.

When all of those things are considered from the beginning, the investment has a much stronger foundation.

For the investor, the appeal is the chance to acquire a 100% freehold care asset at development stage, with a provider already committed under an Agreement for Lease, a fixed development cost and a 20-year lease structure waiting at completion.

For the people who ultimately use the property, the standard we set ourselves is different. We want to deliver homes and schools that do not feel like somebody designed an investment first and remembered the people afterwards.

That is what we are trying to achieve every time we develop one.

You can view our current fully managed, forward funded care investment opportunities here:

www.footforwardproperties.co.uk/care-homes-for-sale

Figures used are illustrative examples only and should not be treated as guarantees of returns, property values or tax outcomes. Investors should take independent legal, financial and tax advice before proceeding with any investment.