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

A UK home care agency sells for two to seven times adjusted profit, as a share sale far more often than an asset sale, and the whole process from instruction to completion usually takes six to nine months.

Most owners start thinking seriously about selling for one of three reasons: they are tired after years of covering visits themselves, a buyer has written to them, or a change in their own life means the business needs a future that does not depend on them. Whichever it is, the questions that follow tend to be the same: what is it worth, who would buy it, how do I do it without my staff and clients finding out, and how long will it take.

Selling a home care agency in the UK follows a well-worn sequence. You establish what the agency is worth and what would make it worth more, prepare the evidence a buyer will ask for, approach the buyers most likely to pay well for it in confidence, compare offers, and then work through the buyer's checks, the legal documents, CQC and the councils until completion. A sale typically takes six to nine months from appointing an adviser to the money arriving. What follows takes each stage in turn, including the parts specific to home care that general business-sale guides leave out.

In an asset sale the buyer has to hold its own CQC registration before completion, so the CQC timetable often decides the completion date.

01—The Kind of Sale

Decide What Kind of Sale You Want

Before anyone puts a number on the business, it helps to be clear about what you want from the sale beyond the price. Some owners want a clean break within a few months. Others are happy to stay on as registered manager or in a handover role for a year or two, which many buyers welcome and some insist on. A few want to sell part of the business now and the rest later, or to sell to their own manager over time.

Each of those leads to a different kind of buyer and a different shape of deal. A buyer who needs you to stay will usually pay part of the price later, linked to how the agency performs after completion, which is called deferred or contingent consideration. A buyer who is happy for you to leave will want to see that the agency already runs without you. Knowing your own answer early saves months of conversations with buyers who want something you do not.

Council contracts often need the council's consent before an agency changes hands, and waiting for it is one of the most common reasons sales run late.

02—The Value

What Your Home Care Agency Is Worth

Home care agencies in England sell for between two and seven times adjusted earnings. The multiple reflects how confident a buyer is that the profit will carry on without you, and buyers form that view from your weekly hours and their direction over two years, your funding mix, how settled your carers are and your CQC position.

In a smaller agency, the earnings figure itself needs care before any multiple is applied. A buyer adds back what you pay yourself, then deducts what it would cost to employ a manager to do your job, and the result is often quite different from the profit in the accounts. Our full guide to what a home care agency is worth walks through that adjustment with a worked example.

Nearly two in five home care agencies in England have never been rated by CQC, 37.8% of those actively providing care on the register of 1 September 2026. An unrated agency can still be sold, but buyers price the uncertainty, and for some kinds of buyer it makes approval much harder.

03—The Buyers

Who Buys Home Care Agencies

Five kinds of buyer are active in UK home care: regional groups buying agencies next to the areas they already serve, national providers filling gaps in their coverage, franchise networks handling resales and new territories, investor-backed groups building something larger, and, below about £1m of turnover, experienced operators buying an agency of their own. Each pays for something different, which is why the price depends so much on how many of them see your agency at the same time.

The buyer most owners hear from first, a local competitor, is rarely the one who pays most, because they believe they could win your clients and carers without buying the business. We cover each kind of buyer, and what each will pay for, in our article on who buys home care agencies.

04—Shares or Assets

Share Sale or Asset Sale

There are two ways to sell a home care agency, and the choice affects your tax, your CQC registration, your staff and your council contracts.

In a share sale, the buyer buys the company that owns the agency. The company carries on exactly as before, with the same CQC registration, the same employment contracts and the same council contracts, and only its owner changes. Most owners of limited companies prefer a share sale, because the proceeds are usually treated as a capital gain and may qualify for Business Asset Disposal Relief, and because the business itself does not have to be moved from one legal entity to another. Buyers take on the company's history, good and bad, so they carry out more thorough checks and ask for more protection in the sale agreement.

In an asset sale, the buyer buys the business out of the company: the client contracts, the staff, the equipment, the name and the goodwill. The buyer's own company becomes the provider. Asset sales are common where the seller is a sole trader or partnership, where the buyer wants to leave a company's history behind, or where a group wants to fold the agency straight into an existing registered provider. They involve more moving parts, and three of them are specific to care.

Staff. In an asset sale, carers and office staff transfer to the buyer under the TUPE regulations, keeping their existing terms, and both sides have legal duties to inform and consult them beforehand. In a share sale TUPE does not usually apply, because the employer does not change.

Council contracts. In a share sale, contracts stay with the company, but council contracts quite often include a change-of-control clause that needs the council's consent before the owner of the company changes. In an asset sale, each contract has to be transferred to the buyer by assignment or novation, which also needs the council's agreement, and some contracts cannot be transferred at all. Councils can take weeks or months to respond, so the contracts should be checked at the very start of the process.

Sponsored carers. A Home Office sponsor licence does not pass automatically with the assets of a business. In a share sale the licence stays with the company and the Home Office has to be told of the change. In an asset sale the buyer needs its own licence and must assign new certificates of sponsorship to the carers who transfer, within a tight window, or those carers lose their right to work. Since overseas recruitment of care workers closed in July 2025, buyers look at this closely, because sponsored carers are hard to replace.

05—CQC

What Happens to Your CQC Registration

This is the question owners ask most often, and the answer depends on the structure of the sale.

In a share sale, the CQC registration belongs to the company and stays with it. CQC needs to be told about the change of ownership, usually after completion, along with any changes to the directors, the nominated individual (the person CQC treats as responsible for supervising the service) and the registered manager. A new nominated individual or registered manager has to go through CQC's own fit and proper person checks, so if either is changing, that work should start early.

In an asset sale, the buyer's company has to hold the registration before it can deliver care. If the buyer is already registered with CQC, it adds your agency as a new location, sends CQC the extra information it asks for and updates its statement of purpose. If the buyer is a new company, it has to register from scratch. You, as the outgoing provider, must tell CQC who is taking over, which locations are transferring and the date the care will transfer, and if you are leaving the sector entirely you cancel your own registration. Specialist care solicitors estimate around 16 to 20 weeks for adding a location to an existing registration and longer for a new company, so the CQC timetable often decides the completion date.

Because a gap in registration would mean care being delivered without one, which is an offence, asset sales are usually structured so that contracts are exchanged first and completion follows once CQC has confirmed the buyer's registration. The registered manager can carry on under the new provider, which is the simplest outcome for clients and staff.

06—The Process

The Sale Process, Stage by Stage

Understand, weeks one and two. A valuation that tells you what the agency is worth today and what would change the number, built on your accounts, your hours, your funding by commissioner and your staffing.

Prepare, weeks two to eight. Gathering the evidence buyers will not take on trust, fixing anything that would reduce the price, and writing the anonymous summary and the fuller information pack buyers see after signing a confidentiality agreement.

Approach, months two to four. Contacting the buyers most likely to pay well for your agency, in confidence, starting with groups already active in your area and others with a reason to want to be there.

Negotiate, months four to six. Comparing offers side by side, including how much is paid on completion, how much is paid later and on what conditions, and what is asked of you after the sale, then agreeing heads of terms with one buyer.

Complete, months six to nine. The buyer's checks into the business, often called due diligence, the sale agreement, CQC and council consents, and completion.

Preparing for a few months before the approach usually pays for itself, because the evidence you assemble is exactly what the buyer's accountants and lawyers will ask for later, and a buyer who sees it early has fewer reasons to reduce the price during their checks.

07—The Evidence

What Buyers Will Ask For

Every buyer asks for broadly the same information, and having it ready shortens the process. Any of these missing will slow a sale down:

• Three years of accounts and the current year's management accounts
• Weekly delivered hours for the last two to three years, split by funder
• Rates paid by each council and by private clients
• Every council contract and framework agreement, with renewal dates
• Carer numbers, turnover and length of service, and the share of hours delivered by sponsored carers
• Your CQC registration, latest inspection report, notifications and complaints log
• Staff training records, policies and the statement of purpose
• The lease on your office, and any vehicles or equipment the business owns

08—Confidentiality

Keeping the Sale Confidential

Confidentiality matters more in home care than in most sectors, because carers who hear a rumour may leave, clients and families may worry, and competitors may use it to approach your staff. Your agency should not be named to any buyer until that buyer has been checked and has signed a confidentiality agreement. Before that point, buyers see an anonymous summary with the area, the size and the shape of the business but nothing that identifies it.

Staff are usually told close to completion, once the deal is certain, and in an asset sale the TUPE consultation sets the timing. Clients and commissioners are told at the point the councils' consent is needed, in a way agreed with the buyer.

09—Costs and Tax

What Selling Costs and What You Keep

The main costs of a sale are the adviser's fee, legal fees on both the sale agreement and the CQC and contract work, and accountancy fees for preparing figures and tax advice. Advisers in this market charge in different ways, from fees paid only on completion to substantial amounts paid 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.

On tax, the gain on selling shares in a trading company, or on selling the business of a sole trader, is subject to Capital Gains Tax. Business Asset Disposal Relief reduces the rate to 18% from 6 April 2026 on up to £1m of qualifying gains over your lifetime, provided you meet the conditions, which include owning at least 5% of the company and being an officer or employee for two years before the sale. The structure of the deal and any deferred payments affect how and when tax is due, so take advice from your accountant before agreeing heads of terms.

10—Questions

Questions Owners Ask

How long does it take to sell a home care agency? Usually 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 register with CQC before completion.

Can I sell an agency that has never been inspected by CQC? Yes. Nearly two in five agencies in England have never been rated, and they do sell, though buyers price the uncertainty and some will not proceed without a rating.

Do I have to tell my staff before I sell? Not at the start. Staff are usually told close to completion. In an asset sale, TUPE requires the employer to inform and consult staff about the transfer before it happens.

Will the buyer keep my carers and clients? In almost every home care sale the carers and clients are the reason the buyer is buying, so keeping them is in the buyer's interest. In an asset sale the carers transfer automatically under TUPE.

Can I stay on after the sale? Often, yes. Many buyers want the owner or registered manager to stay for a handover period, and part of the price may be linked to how the agency performs while you do.

The price you accept will be decided by how well the agency is prepared and how many of the right buyers see it at the same time, and both of those are in your hands 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 home care advisory page sets out how we work with agency owners from the first valuation to completion.

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