Selling a Care Home Business in the UK: The Complete Guide for 2026

Of the 11,655 care homes for older people on the CQC register in England, 5,034, or 43%, are run by an operator with a single home, and two thirds are run by operators with five homes or fewer. For most of those owners, selling is something they will do once, often after decades in the building, and the process is unfamiliar in a way that running the home never was.

Selling a care home business in the UK follows a settled sequence. You establish what the home is worth as a business and as a building, prepare the evidence buyers and their lenders will ask for, approach the buyers most likely to pay well in confidence, choose between offers, and then work through the buyer's checks, the lender's valuation, the legal documents and CQC until completion. It typically takes six to nine months from appointing an adviser, and the work you do before that point has more effect on the price than anything that happens after it.

Private residents paid £1,461 a week and council-funded residents £1,096, a difference of nearly £19,000 a year for each bed.

01—The Kind of Sale

Decide What You Want From the Sale

The price is one part of the decision and rarely the only one. Some owners want a clean break. Others would like to stay involved for a year or two, or keep the building and sell only the business, taking rent from the new operator. Some want to know the home will be run in a particular way by the people who buy it.

Each of those leads to a different buyer and a different deal. Keeping the freehold and letting the home to an operator gives you an income but leaves you as landlord, with the repairs and the risk that the tenant struggles. Selling the business and the building together gives you a single price and a clean exit. Staying on usually means part of the price is paid later and linked to how the home performs, which is called deferred or contingent consideration. It saves a great deal of time to know which of these you want before buyers start asking.

If the lender's valuation comes in below the agreed price, the buyer's borrowing falls and the price is usually renegotiated.

02—The Value

What Your Care Home Is Worth

Care homes sell for between three and ten times adjusted earnings, and four things decide where in that range a home sits: its CQC rating, its occupancy, its fee mix and how settled its team is.

The multiple values the trading business. Where you own the building, that means the profit left after a fair rent for it, otherwise the building would be counted twice, and we then value the building separately and add it on top. Two homes with the same profit can sit in very different buildings, from a well-kept purpose-built home to an older property that needs major work, and a single multiple cannot reflect that. Asking prices on our Market Index are quoted as advertised, and for a freehold home they usually include the building.

Fee mix matters because of the gap between what private residents and councils pay. Knight Frank's 2025 review of more than 100,000 beds found private residents paying an average of £1,461 a week in the year to March 2025, against £1,096 for council-funded residents, a difference of nearly £19,000 a year for each bed. LaingBuisson's estimate of what self-funding residents typically paid across the whole UK market in 2024-25, the figure our Market Index uses, is lower at £1,278 a week, which reflects a different sample and year. The same review put average profit before rent and central costs at 30.1% of income and average occupancy at 88.7%.

In an owner-run home, the earnings a buyer applies the multiple to are adjusted first. Your own drawings are added back, then the cost of employing a manager to do your job is deducted. Our care home valuation guide works through an example: a home reporting £320,000 of profit, with £60,000 of owner's drawings and a £50,000 replacement manager, has adjusted earnings of £330,000, which is worth between £1.65m and £2.31m in the middle tier and between £2.31m and £3.3m in the top tier.

03—The Building

Freehold, Leasehold and the Building

A care home is two assets: the business that cares for residents and the building it happens in. When you own the freehold, a buyer is paying for both, and we value them separately: the trading business as a multiple of its profit after a fair rent for the building, and the building on top. When the home is leasehold, the buyer is taking on your lease, so its length, the rent, how the rent is reviewed and whether the landlord must agree to the transfer all affect the price, and there is no building to add on top.

The building also changes who buys. Property investors and specialist healthcare landlords buy freehold homes and lease them to operators, sometimes buying from an owner who wants to keep running the home as their tenant. Operators who want to own their buildings will pay for a freehold with room to extend or modernise. A buyer funding the purchase with a bank loan needs a freehold or a long lease the bank can lend against.

The bank's view is a large part of the price. Most buyers borrow, and the lender commissions its own valuation from a specialist valuer, who looks at trading, the building and the registration together. If the valuer's figure comes in below the agreed price, the buyer's borrowing falls and the price is usually renegotiated, so it pays to know before a sale what a lender's valuer is likely to conclude.

04—The Buyers

Who Buys Care Homes

Four kinds of buyer are active in the UK care home market: regional and national operators buying single homes and small groups, investor-backed care groups that often value the property and the business separately, property investors and specialist landlords buying homes to lease to operators, and families and experienced operators growing from one home to several. Each pays for something different, and a home that fits several of them at once attracts competition.

A buyer who approaches you directly may be the right one, but if theirs is the only offer you see, you have no way of knowing whether it is a good one.

05—Shares or Assets

Share Sale or Asset Sale

There are two ways to sell, and the choice affects your tax, your registration, your staff and your contracts.

In a share sale, the buyer buys the company that runs the home, and usually owns the building if the company does. The CQC registration, the staff contracts and the agreements with councils and the NHS all stay with the company, and only its owner changes. Owners usually prefer a share sale, because the proceeds are generally treated as a capital gain that may qualify for Business Asset Disposal Relief. The buyer takes on the company's whole history, so expect thorough checks and a detailed sale agreement with warranties, which are statements about the business the buyer can claim against if they turn out to be untrue.

In an asset sale, the buyer buys the home itself out of the company: the building or lease, the equipment, the goodwill and the business. Asset sales are common where the owner is a sole trader or partnership, or where a group wants to bring the home straight into its own registered company. Staff transfer to the buyer under the TUPE regulations on their existing terms, and both sides must inform and consult them beforehand. Agreements with councils and the NHS for individual residents have to be transferred to the buyer, which needs the commissioners' cooperation.

06—CQC

What Happens to Your CQC Registration

In a share sale, the registration belongs to the company and stays with it. CQC must be told about the change of ownership, usually after completion, along with any change to the directors, the nominated individual (the person CQC treats as responsible for supervising the service) and the registered manager. Anyone new in those roles goes through CQC's fit and proper person checks.

In an asset sale, the buyer's company must be registered for your home before it takes over. A buyer already registered adds your home as a new location and updates its statement of purpose. A new company has to register from scratch. You must tell CQC who is taking over and on what date, and cancel your own registration if you are leaving the sector. Specialist care solicitors estimate around 16 to 20 weeks to add a location to an existing registration, and longer for a new company, so asset sales usually exchange contracts first and complete once CQC has confirmed the buyer's registration.

Your current rating travels with the home. A Good or Outstanding rating supports the price throughout the sale, and an inspection that lands during the buyer's checks is one of the events most likely to reprice or end a deal, so a home that is ready to be inspected at any point is in a much stronger position.

07—Manager and Staff

Your Registered Manager, Staff and Residents

Buyers pay close attention to the registered manager, because a home whose manager leaves during or just after a sale can lose occupancy, staff and its rating quickly. Settling the manager's plans before the sale, and in many cases agreeing a retention payment for staying through the handover, protects the price as much as anything else you can do.

Staff are usually told close to completion, once the deal is certain, and in an asset sale the TUPE consultation sets the timing. Residents and families are told in a way agreed with the buyer, with reassurance about continuity of care. Commissioners need to know where their agreements are being transferred.

08—The Process

The Sale Process, Stage by Stage

Understand, weeks one and two. A valuation of the home as a business and, where relevant, as a building, with a view on what would change the number.

Prepare, weeks two to eight. Financials, occupancy and fee analysis by funder, the staffing picture and the regulatory history assembled before any buyer sees them, along with the anonymous summary and the fuller information pack.

Approach, months two to four. Anonymous approaches to the buyers already known to be looking for homes like yours, with the name of the home disclosed only after a buyer has been checked and signed a confidentiality agreement.

Negotiate, months four to six. Offers compared side by side, including how much is paid on completion, any deferred payments and their conditions, and what is asked of you after the sale, then heads of terms agreed with one buyer.

Complete, months six to nine. The buyer's checks, the lender's valuation, the sale agreement, CQC and commissioner steps, and completion.

09—The Evidence

What Buyers and Their Lenders Will Ask For

Having these ready before the first buyer sees the home shortens the process. Any of them missing will slow it down:

• Three years of accounts and the current year's management accounts
• Monthly occupancy for at least two years, and fees by resident and by funder
• Staffing levels, agency use, turnover and the registered manager's length of service
• Your CQC registration, latest inspection report, notifications, safeguarding records and complaints log
• Title documents or the lease, plans, and fire, gas, electrical and lift certificates
• Agreements with councils and the NHS, and any outstanding fee disputes
• Maintenance records and any recent spending on the building

10—Costs and Tax

What Selling Costs and What You Keep

The main costs of selling a care home are the adviser's fee, legal fees for the sale agreement and the property and regulatory work, and accountancy fees for preparing figures and tax advice. Advisers charge in different ways, from fees paid only on completion to substantial sums upfront, so it is worth asking exactly what is payable before a sale completes and what happens if it does not. Our own fees are set out on our fees page.

Gains on the sale of shares in a trading company, or on a sole trader's business, are subject to Capital Gains Tax, and Business Asset Disposal Relief reduces the rate to 18% from 6 April 2026 on up to £1m of qualifying gains over your lifetime if you meet the conditions. Where the building is held separately from the business, or by you personally, the tax position can be quite different, so take advice early, before the structure of the sale is agreed.

11—Questions

Questions Owners Ask

How long does it take to sell a care home? Typically six to nine months from appointing an adviser to completion, plus any time spent preparing beforehand. Asset sales can take longer because the buyer must be registered with CQC first.

Can I sell a care home rated Requires Improvement? Yes, and many do, but the price and the number of buyers are lower, and lenders are more cautious. Where the issues can be fixed and a re-inspection is likely, it is often worth resolving them before going to market.

Should I sell the building with the business? It depends on whether you want a clean exit or an income. Selling both gives a single price and no ongoing ties; keeping the building and letting it to the buyer gives you rent but leaves you as landlord.

Will my staff and residents be told? Not until the sale is close to certain. The timing is agreed with the buyer, and in an asset sale it is set partly by the TUPE consultation.

Do I need an adviser to sell a care home? Not legally, but most owners use one to value the home, find and qualify buyers in confidence, and manage the process with solicitors, lenders and CQC through to completion.

The price you accept for your home will be set by how well it is prepared and by how many of the right buyers see it at the same time, and both are decided well before the first conversation with a buyer. If you are starting to think about selling, whether in the next year or the next five, we offer every owner a free full valuation and are always glad to talk it through.

Our care home advisory page sets out how we work with owners from the first valuation to completion.

For current figures on how many care homes change owner each year, what they are asking and who owns them, see our Senior Residential Care Market Index, updated every quarter.