Established Devon village care home sold after 21-year ownership

Somerville House is an established care home for the elderly that is registered for up to 30 residents. It occupies a detached period property that has been modified and extended over the years to provide quality care provision across 29 bedrooms. The home sits in a convenient and accessible position within the Devon village of Willand near Cullompton.

Somerville House has been under the same ownership for 21 years and was recently brought to market to allow them to retire.

Following a confidential sales process with Simon Harvey at Christie & Co, with funding sourced through Ashley Clements at Christie Finance, it has been purchased by Karamvir Singh of Smile Care Home Ltd. With two homes in the Midlands already, this is his first venture in the South West.

Karamvir Singh, Owner of Smile Care Home Ltd, comments, “We are already in the care home business in the West Midlands and wanted to expand our footprint in this specific area, which led us to search and find this beautiful property. This is a well-managed property with a manager on site, and the CQC rating is also very good. But we believe that there is always room to improve, so we are striving to improve our services for residents and make a special bond with residents.”

Simon Harvey, Senior Director – Care at Christie & Co, comments, “Having sold the home to the vendor over 20 years ago, I was delighted to have been entrusted with the sale and to assist in his retirement plans. During his ownership, many improvements have been made, including the most recent ground floor extension, which was completed in early 2022, making it a most appealing proposition. Somerville House attracted strong interest from a wide variety of purchasers, and we wish Karamvir well with his first venture in the region.

“We continue to see very strong interest being shown in numerous care homes that we are marketing, and these are across a wide variety of businesses and locations underlying not just the strength of the market but also the reach Christie & Co is able to achieve within it. As we move through springtime, activity shows no sign of letting up and hopefully this will remain the case throughout the rest of this year and beyond.”

Ashley Clements, Associate Director at Christie Finance, comments, “It was a pleasure to work with Karamvir and the team at Smile Care Homes to help source the funding for the purchase of this home. The team has achieved great things in their existing homes over the last few years, and I have every faith in their ability to continue this trajectory with this home and future purchases. We continue to see experience and a proven track record being a key part of the transaction from a lender’s perspective, especially when clients have a desire to grow at pace. Ensuring this is evidenced in the right way can be the difference between obtaining funding and not. I wish Karamvir all the best with this and future ventures, and I look forward to working with the team again.”

Somerville House was sold for an undisclosed price.

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For further information on this press release, contact:
Phoebe Hill, Associate Director – Corporate Communications
P: 07540 063 598 or E: phoebe.hill@christie.com

Contact the agent:
Simon Harvey, Senior Director – Care
P: 07764 241 310 or E: simon.harvey@christie.com

Contact Christie Finance:
Ashley Clements, Associate Director
P: 07714 138 984 or E: ashley.clements@christiefinance.com

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