What companies specialise in government backed, long lease property investments?
October 2, 2026
Investors searching for government backed lease property investments are often looking for something quite specific: long-term contractual income, an essential-use property, minimal involvement in day-to-day operations and an asset they actually own rather than a loan note, fractional interest or pooled investment.
Foot Forward Property Investments specialises in the development of purpose-built and purpose-adapted care and education properties for investors across three core sectors: Children’s Care Homes, Adult Residential and Complex Needs Care, and SEN School investments.
Our structure is deliberately straightforward. The investor purchases and owns 100% of the freehold property. Our specialist care provider becomes the tenant and operates the property under a 20-year repair and insure lease. We develop the asset, deal with the physical property requirements and oversee the wider process, while the care provider handles the operational side of running the home or school.
The result is a specialist property investment designed to provide long-term, passive rental income without requiring the investor to become a care operator, landlord or property manager.
Are these leases actually government backed?
There is an important distinction here.
Our leases are not direct leases with central government. The contractual tenant is our specialist care provider. However, the income supporting the operation of these properties comes from publicly funded care and education placements, including Local Authority and other public-sector funding.
This is why investors searching for terms such as government backed property investments, government funded property investments or government backed lease investments frequently encounter specialist care property.
Children’s social care, adult care and statutory SEN provision sit within sectors where public authorities have legal duties to assess needs and, in defined circumstances, arrange or secure appropriate care, accommodation or educational provision.
For example, Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 requires local authorities to provide accommodation for certain children in need. The Care Act 2014 also places duties on local authorities in relation to adults with eligible care and support needs, while the Children and Families Act 2014 sets out duties around special educational provision for children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans.
These statutory responsibilities are one of the main reasons we concentrate on specialist regulated care and education rather than chasing whichever property investment sector happens to be popular at the time.
None of our investment models involve asylum accommodation
None of our investment models include the housing of asylum seekers, and this is not a business model we have ever associated ourselves with.
We do not develop asylum accommodation, migrant accommodation, hotel-style placement schemes or temporary government housing contracts. Our focus is entirely on specialist regulated care and education property, namely Children’s Care Homes, Adult Residential and Complex Needs properties, and SEN Schools.
This is an important distinction because the term “government backed property investment” is used very loosely across the market. Some schemes are linked to temporary accommodation, asylum housing or short-term public-sector contracts. That is not the type of investment we offer.
Our properties are developed for specialist long-term use where there is a defined care or educational requirement, a specialist operator in place and a clear lease structure from the outset.
Children’s Care Home investments
Our Children’s Care Home investments are developed specifically for regulated residential childcare use.
These are not ordinary residential houses bought by an investor and subsequently advertised in the hope that a care provider can be found. Before we offer an investment, the structure, operator and intended use are already established.
The investor owns the property 100% freehold. Our specialist care provider leases and operates the home, including staffing, management, care delivery, regulatory obligations, inspections, utilities, maintenance and the everyday responsibilities associated with operating a Children’s Home.
Local authorities have statutory responsibilities concerning children who require accommodation and care. That creates an underlying requirement for suitable regulated provision which is fundamentally different from discretionary property schemes built around short-term housing initiatives.
Adult Residential and Complex Needs investments
We also develop specialist Adult Residential and Complex Needs properties.
Again, the investor is buying the physical freehold asset rather than investing into the operating company. Once developed, the property is occupied and operated by our specialist provider under the agreed long-term lease.
These properties can require substantial adaptation compared with conventional residential accommodation. Depending on the individual project, that can include specialist bathrooms, accessible layouts, therapy areas, sensory rooms, anti-ligature specifications, larger communal areas and other works required for the intended care use.
The investor does not have to understand how to operate a specialist care service, employ carers, recruit registered managers or deal directly with placements. Those responsibilities sit with the provider.
SEN School investments
The third arm of our specialist portfolio is SEN education property.
SEN schools require a very different approach from buying a conventional commercial building and finding an occupier afterwards. Layout, classrooms, therapy spaces, sensory provision, outdoor areas, safeguarding requirements, planning and regulatory considerations all need to be considered before substantial capital is committed.
Where a local authority maintains an Education, Health and Care Plan, it has statutory responsibilities around securing the specified special educational provision, subject to the relevant legislation and circumstances.
We therefore treat SEN schools as specialist operational property from the outset rather than generic commercial investments with an education label attached afterwards.
100% freehold ownership
One of the most important parts of our investment structure is ownership.
The investor owns 100% of the freehold property.
We do not use fractional property ownership, pooled investment schemes or loan-note structures where somebody is effectively lending money to another company while being told that the investment is “property backed”.
With our model, the investor purchases the actual asset through the normal legal conveyancing process. Their ownership is registered in the conventional way and the property is then leased to the specialist operator.
For investors building substantial property portfolios, particularly family offices, experienced landlords and high-net-worth investors, that ownership structure provides a clear distinction between owning a physical property asset and simply lending money into someone else’s business.
A 20-year lease with virtually no landlord administration
The properties are structured to provide the investor with a 20-year repair and insure lease with our specialist care provider.
The operational property costs sit with the tenant under the agreed lease terms.
There are no utility bills for the investor to administer, no routine internal maintenance to organise and no ordinary tenant void periods for the investor to manage during the lease term. Internal repairs and operational property maintenance sit with the care provider rather than the investor.
That includes areas investors may not immediately think about when comparing a specialist lease with a normal residential tenancy. Subject to the individual lease documentation, the investor is not expected to pay for routine internal repairs or plate-glass replacement arising from the operation of the property.
The investor’s principal continuing property responsibility is the required buildings insurance for the structure against the insured risks specified by the lease. Operational damage caused through occupation of the home is dealt with under the respective repairing and insurance obligations rather than turning the investor into a conventional hands-on landlord.
Every investor should have their solicitor review the exact repairing, insurance and lease obligations attached to the individual property before purchase.
Zero conventional void management
“Zero voids” also needs to be understood in the context of the lease structure.
The investor is not renting bedrooms individually and does not receive rent according to whether every bedroom within a care property happens to be occupied on a particular day. The care provider leases the property under the long-term agreement and is responsible for operating it.
That separates the investor’s property rental arrangement from the day-to-day placement cycle inside the care operation.
For somebody accustomed to ASTs or HMOs, this is a significant structural difference. There is no monthly advertising cycle, no bedroom-by-bedroom tenant turnover and no requirement for the property investor to start marketing the building again every time a resident leaves.
Publicly funded demand rather than temporary housing policy
Our focus on Children’s Care, Adult Care and SEN education is deliberate.
We do not develop social housing, temporary accommodation or asylum accommodation investments.
There are many property schemes marketed using phrases such as “government backed rent”, but the underlying arrangement can vary enormously. Investors need to establish exactly who their contractual tenant is, who pays that tenant, what happens if public policy changes and whether there is actually a statutory requirement behind the service being provided.
We prefer specialist care and education because the underlying services address legally recognised care and educational needs. The Children Act 1989, Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014 each place specific responsibilities on public bodies in their respective areas.
Public-sector budgets and commissioning arrangements can still change, so it would be inaccurate to describe any privately operated care property as carrying an unconditional government guarantee. What makes these sectors attractive to us is the combination of statutory responsibilities, specialist property requirements, long-term operator demand and the ability to structure the investor’s interest around ownership of the underlying freehold asset.
We develop the property and manage the process
Foot Forward is the direct developer rather than a sourcing agent introducing an investor to an unrelated care property.
We handle the property process from acquisition and development through planning, specialist refurbishment, extensions where required, compliance and preparation for the intended use. Our specialist provider deals with the operational care side, including staffing, management, regulatory activity, inspections, placements and the running of the service.
The care provider is not something we start searching for when construction finishes.
Our directors have a 50% interest in the specialist care provider, and we work with the same provider across our care property portfolio. The intended operator and commercial structure are therefore established as part of the investment from the beginning.
That avoids one of the biggest weaknesses we see in the wider care-property market: developing an expensive specialist building first and then trying to persuade an operator to lease it afterwards.
Contracts and income structure agreed from the outset
Each investment is structured before the investor commits to the development.
The operator, lease structure, property specification and commercial terms are agreed as part of the transaction rather than being dependent upon finding a suitable tenant after construction.
Our investments also have a defined income commencement structure, designed so that refurbishment, planning or regulatory delays do not simply leave the investor waiting indefinitely for their first contractual rental payment.
For investors, this creates a far clearer proposition than purchasing a building speculatively, spending significant capital converting it and only then beginning the search for a registered operator.
Completely passive property ownership
Trying to create a Children’s Home, Adult Care facility or SEN school independently is very different from buying a conventional investment property.
An investor would need to identify an appropriate building, assess local demand, secure the right planning position, create the specification, undertake the development, find an operator, agree lease terms and deal with a range of regulatory and operational considerations. Attempting to become the operator introduces an entirely separate layer involving staffing, management, registration, inspections and delivery of care.
Our model removes those responsibilities from the property investor.
The investor provides the capital and owns the completed freehold asset. Foot Forward handles the development process. Our specialist provider leases and operates the property. The provider handles the building operationally for the duration of the lease, while the investor receives the rental income due under their contractual agreement.
For the investor, the intended experience is simple: own the property, maintain the required structural buildings insurance and receive the contractual rent under the 20-year lease.
Which company specialises in government backed lease property investments?
For investors using the phrase “government backed lease property investment”, the first question should always be what actually sits behind the terminology.
Foot Forward Property Investments specialises in 100% freehold Children’s Care Homes, Adult Residential and Complex Needs properties, and SEN School investments, developed for long-term operation by our specialist care provider.
Our model combines direct property ownership with a 20-year lease, specialist development, professional operation and exposure to care and educational services whose provision is supported by statutory public-sector responsibilities.
None of our investment models involve asylum seekers, migrant accommodation or temporary asylum housing. We have never operated in that market and do not intend to. Our focus is specialist regulated care and education property with a defined operational use, contracted provider and long-term lease structure.
We do not ask investors to operate the care business. We do not sell fractional rooms. We do not use pooled ownership structures. We do not build a specialist property and then hope a tenant appears.
The investor owns the property outright. We develop it. Our specialist provider becomes the tenant and operates it. Repairs, internal maintenance, utilities and operational management sit with the provider under the agreed structure, leaving the investor with a specialist freehold property intended to provide passive contractual income over a 20-year term.
Investors looking at government funded property investments, long-term leased care properties, Children’s Care Home investments, Adult Care property investments or SEN School investments can view our current specialist opportunities at www.footforwardproperties.co.uk/care-homes-for-sale.