Healthcare real estate

The asset class institutional & US capital is racing into.

Long, index-linked income. Strong-covenant operators. A structural supply shortage. Keystone puts you inside it — at a keener yield than the institutions pay.

£12bn
UK healthcare RE, 2025 forecast
£10bn
Welltower's UK care portfolio
52.5%
from overseas capital
4.5%
prime net yield, FRI-leased

Third-party sector figures — Knight Frank and company reporting, 2024–25. Sources below.

01The demographic engine

A demand wall, not a cycle.

Demand is driven by demography, not a market cycle: the core care-home population more than doubles by 2050 while the supply of beds falls further behind.

UK population aged 85+ (millions)

1.7m20223.3m20473.7m2050

The core care-home demographic more than doubles by 2050. Source: ONS / Knight Frank.

55–65,000

en-suite care-bed shortfall by end-2024 (Carterwood)

~10,000

new beds needed every year to 2030 (Savills)

88.7%

average care-home occupancy, 2025 (Knight Frank)

2033

year the elderly-care market risks hitting capacity

02Institutional capital

Capital is pouring in — and accelerating.

UK healthcare real-estate investment is forecast to more than treble its long-term average in 2025 — and over half the capital now comes from overseas, two-thirds of it from North America.

£2.36bn2022£1.2bn2023£3.2bn2024highest since 2020£12bn2025forecast£bn — UK healthcare RE investment
52.5%of demand

overseas capital into UK healthcare RE, 2024

66%of demand

of cross-border capital is North American

Welltower

US
≈ £10bn

UK portfolio — incl. Barchester £5.2bn (world's largest care-home deal), HC-One £1.2bn, Care UK

Aedifica + Cofinimmo

EU
€12.1bn

merged 2025 — world's 4th-largest healthcare REIT

Octopus Real Estate

UK
£1.8bn+

100+ purpose-built care homes, 7,000+ beds, 30+ operators

Target Healthcare REIT

UK
£930m

92 operational care homes, 34 tenants

CareTrust REIT

US
$817m

acquired Care REIT (137 homes) in 2025

Medical Properties Trust

US
£800m

Priory sale-and-leaseback

The signal. When Welltower, CareTrust and Medical Properties Trust — three of America's largest REITs — are deploying billions into UK care homes, the institutional thesis is already proven. Keystone lets individual investors own a slice of the same asset class.

03Where Keystone sits

More income than residential — without the headaches.

A residential buy-to-let leaves you carrying voids, repairs, management and tenant risk. Care-home income comes on a long FRI lease where the operator carries all of it — and it still pays more. The trade-off is concentration: one operator pays the rent, and the operator could fail.

Net yields, like-for-like. The Keystone figure is a target entry yield on contracted rent under an FRI lease — not a return promise.

Residential buy-to-let (net of costs)3.60%

you carry repairs, voids, management, tenant risk

Prime care home — institutional (5A1 covenant)4.50%

FRI lease, index-linked, operator carries all costs

Care home — institutional (SPV covenant)5.75%

Keystone's target entry yield is shown to certified qualified investors. Sector figures above are third-party (Knight Frank, 2025).

04The structure

Why an FRI lease beats a normal let.

A full-repairing-and-insuring lease to a strong operator is what institutions buy. The tenant covers everything; you receive contracted FRI rent — clean, CPI-linked income under the lease.

Traditional residential letKeystone FRI lease
Repairs & maintenanceYou payOperator pays
Buildings insuranceYou payOperator pays
Voids between tenantsYour risk — no rentNone under the lease — though rent relies on the operator performing
Management & lettingsYour cost & timeFully managed operator
Lease length6–12 month tenancies25–35 year institutional lease
Rent reviewsMarket, uncertainCPI-linked, collared 2% / capped 5%
IncomeNet of all the aboveNet and contracted — reliant on the operator's covenant
05Not all care investments are equal

A genuine lease — not an “assured rent”.

Plenty of operators sell retail investors a care-suite or supported-living unit with a fixed “assured” or “guaranteed” rent for a few years. The structure is fundamentally weaker than a true institutional FRI lease — and regulators have noticed.

The “assured rent” retail model

  • A short, fixed-term rent guarantee — not a genuine long FRI lease.
  • Backed by a single, often small and unrated operator's solvency.
  • Frequently sold outside FCA regulation — no FOS or FSCS recourse if it fails.
  • Priced on a marketing figure, not an independent valuation.
  • The guarantee is only ever as good as the operator behind it.

The Keystone structure

  • A genuine 25–35 year FRI lease to a named, independently-funded operator — never a developer-affiliated shell — with Companies House accounts published in the data room before reservations open.
  • Contracted FRI rent with CPI-linked reviews — rent the operator is contractually bound to pay, repairs and insurance included.
  • The operator's own balance sheet stands behind the rent across its whole portfolio — your income does not depend on one building performing.
  • Independent RICS Red Book valuation behind every price.
  • Deposits in SRA-regulated escrow; promoted only as the financial-promotion rules allow.
  • You own the freehold/long-leasehold title — a real asset, not a paper guarantee.

On the record. The FCA won a High Court case against a “Ponzi-like” care-room investment scheme whose promised returns “were never likely to be achievable” — ~£57m taken from ~380 investors, who were estimated to recover only around a third. That is the difference between a marketed “assured rent” and a genuine institutional lease. Our standard is the opposite: Honest price. Contracted rent. A real, independent operator. Standalone titled units. Commercial classification.

Sources
  1. 01Knight Frank, Healthcare Capital Markets 2024 & 2025 (transaction volume, yields, overseas-capital share).
  2. 02Savills, UK & European Care Home Investment 2025 and Healthcare UK Market Roundup H1 2025.
  3. 03Welltower / CareTrust REIT / Medical Properties Trust company announcements, 2024–2025.
  4. 04Target Healthcare REIT FY2025 results; Octopus Real Estate; Care REIT 2024 results.
  5. 05ONS National Population Projections (2022-based); Carterwood; LaingBuisson Care Homes UK 2025/26.
  6. 06FCA press releases & statements on unregulated / care-room investment schemes (2024–2025).

Sector figures are third-party, current to mid-2026, and describe the market — not a Keystone return. Indicative only; capital is at risk.

Speak to Keystone

Request the investor pack.

Everything a serious investor asks for, in one reply — within one business day.

  • Scheme overview & live availability

    Unit schedule, status and the build programme.

  • Lease heads of terms

    FRI structure, CPI-linked rent reviews (collared and capped), operator covenant note.

  • The compliance pack

    SRA-escrow deposit route, RICS valuation process, title structure.

  • A named contact

    One person who knows the schemes — never a call centre.

Illustrative, assumptions-based figures. The operator could fail. Resale takes time. Values can fall. Yields and exit pricing are not guaranteed. Capital at risk. Not advice.

Talk to the Keystone team

Valuation, lease terms and live availability. No obligation; we reply within one business day.

Your details are private and never sold. Promoted only to qualified investors under s.21 FSMA. Capital is at risk.