Leading lettings pioneer awarded OBE in NY Honours List

Specialist retirement lettings boss Peter Girling has been awarded an OBE in the New Year’s honours list for services to housing and charity.

The 66-year-old is the chairman of Girlings Retirement Residentials which he set up during the early 1990s with wife Gillian after he spotted a gap in the property market to offer rented retirement properties while working as a housing manager for Help the Aged and director of McCarthy & Stone Care services.

Girlings is now the UK’s leading retirement property letting agent and part of the Places for People Group, which lets and manages more than 2,700 properties in 600 developments in England, Scotland and Wales.

Most of the firm’s properties are rented via lifelong assured tenancies; Girling has pushed for the sector to focus on improving lettings rather than obsessing over property ownership and believes longer private tenancies should be introduced to give renters greater security of tenure.

Charity work

Girling lives in Honiton, Devon and has for many years been active in the charity sector. He’s the founding patron of the Tommy charity, which helps veterans find accommodation and work – often in construction – while his firm is committed to supporting charities including Age UK in Somerset.

It sponsors local events and activities and ARC, formally Taunton Association for the Homeless. Girlings has also supported the Campaign for Housing in Later Life, launched by the Home Builders Federation.

Read more about retirement housing.

Pic credit: Twitter/Tommy charity