TDM Recruitment is exclusively partnering with a well-established independent care home developer and operator to appoint a Head of Land to lead site acquisition across the Northern Home Counties, Southern Home Counties, and wider South East/London markets.
Our client currently operates a portfolio of nine care homes and has ambitious plans to start three to four new developments over the next two years. This is a pivotal hire — the first dedicated land appointment in the business — reporting directly to the leadership team and shaping the growth trajectory of the company.
The Opportunity This is a dual-purpose land role with two clear routes to market on every acquisition:
1. Pipeline for Own Portfolio Source, appraise, negotiate, and acquire sites (typically one to 2.5 acres) for the client's own care home development programme. Sites will be taken through planning and built out under the company's operational brand.
2. Land Trading & Planning Gain Acquire off-market opportunities, secure planning consent for care, assisted living, or supported living use, and trade sites on to other independent care operators — particularly those without in-house development capability or appetite for planning and development risk.
The successful candidate will be responsible for building and maintaining a live pipeline of off-market opportunities across the target geographies, acting as the engine room for growth.
What We're Looking For The ideal candidate will bring a strong track record in off-market land sourcing and acquisition — someone who knows how to find sites before they come to market and has the commercial instinct to move decisively.
Essential experience:
* Proven ability to source and acquire off-market land — this is the critical requirement
* Strong agency and landowner networks across the Home Counties and South East
* Experience appraising development opportunities for care homes, assisted living, or supported living (or transferable appraisal skills from adjacent healthcare/operational real estate sectors)
* Comfortable operating across the full acquisition cycle: sourcing, negotiation, heads of terms, due diligence, and exchange
* Understanding of planning risk and the ability to assess sites without an existing planning consent
* Transactional, deal-driven mindset with the ability to manage multiple live opportunities simultaneously
Desirable:
* Experience trading land parcels or development sites to third-party operators
* Background in healthcare, care home, or later living development
* Familiarity with the independent care operator landscape
why this role:
* Join a profitable, growing independent operator with a clear development strategy
* Shape the land function from scratch — no legacy processes, full autonomy
* Two monetisation routes on every deal — portfolio or trade sale — meaning nothing is wasted
* Work directly with the business owners with short decision-making chains
* Genuine opportunity to build something significant within a business that is scaling