What a care home sells for is decided by a handful of things that most owners have never had valued.
The CQC inspection history, how many residents pay privately rather than through the local authority, occupancy and whether it is rising or falling, how much you rely on agency staff, the condition and ownership of the building, and how much of the operation still runs through you personally. Two homes with the same turnover can sell for prices years of profit apart, because a buyer is pricing how reliable the income underneath that turnover really is.
This is where most of our work is. We hold our own enriched data on care homes across the country, covering ownership, ratings and registration history, so when we take a home to market we already know who is buying, in which areas, and how hard they are looking. If you want a first answer on your own home, our free valuation tool takes a few minutes.
The market
One of the largest care markets in Europe, and still mostly independent.
Residential and nursing care for older people is one of the biggest sectors in UK healthcare, with thousands of registered homes across England and a combined income measured in the tens of billions of pounds each year. What surprises most people is how much of it is still owned the way it always was: by individuals, families and small groups running one to three homes. The big national operators take the headlines, but our own data tells the real story: more than half of all homes are held by providers running three homes or fewer, and over five and a half thousand providers own exactly one. Fewer than two hundred providers hold ten or more. It is an independent market, which is exactly why buyers spend so much effort looking for well-run homes.
UK care homes in our own data
owners identified behind them, not just the companies
of homes in our data are held by providers running three homes or fewer
Current conditions
What the market looks like right now.
The last two years have been kinder to well-run homes than the headlines suggest. Fee rates for privately funded residents have moved ahead strongly, occupancy across the sector has recovered from the pandemic years, and the staffing picture, while still tight, has eased from its worst. Costs have risen too, wages above all, which is squeezing homes that rely mainly on local authority fees. The result is a market splitting in two: homes with a good rating and a healthy private mix are trading well, while homes with regulatory or occupancy problems are finding the going much harder.
Buyer appetite has stayed strong through all of it, because the demand behind the sector does not move with the economy. If anything the buyer pool has deepened: the investor-backed groups have kept acquiring, and higher build costs have made buying an existing home more attractive than building a new one. The Casey Commission is also now part of the picture, and buyers are already thinking about what its recommendations could mean for fees and funding. We will be writing about that properly in the newsroom. For an owner thinking about selling, though, conditions matter less than preparation. A well-prepared home has sold well in every market of the last twenty years, and a poorly prepared one has struggled in the best of them.
"A well-prepared home has sold well in every market of the last twenty years."
The long view
Demand is set to outstrip supply for the next 25 years.
The number of people aged 85 and over in the UK is projected to nearly double over the next 25 years, while the number of good-quality beds is barely moving, because planning, build costs and regulation all hold new supply back. That gap is why money keeps coming into care homes through every downturn, and why the pool of buyers for a well-run home is bigger than most owners think. Most owners can name two or three people who might buy their home. Our data usually turns up considerably more, including the ones who ignore broker mailshots but answer a direct approach from someone who already knows their market.
Valuation
What moves the value of a care home.
Every one of these can be improved in the year or two before a sale, and improving them is worth more per hour of effort than almost anything else you could do in the business. That is the whole argument for starting early.
Your CQC rating and inspection history
The single biggest lever, because it is close to a precondition for serious buyer and lender interest. A Good or Outstanding rating widens your buyer pool and your price; a Requires Improvement narrows both sharply. Buyers read your last two inspection reports before they read your accounts, so any outstanding action should be resolved well before a process starts rather than disclosed during one.
Occupancy, and which way it is moving
Occupancy against registered capacity drives profit, and its direction of travel tells a buyer whether they are buying momentum or a turnaround. A home in the mid-nineties with a waiting list is a different purchase from the same home in the low eighties, and the difference shows up directly in the multiple.
The mix between private and local authority fees
Privately funded residents typically pay meaningfully more than local authority rates for the same bed. A strong self-funded mix means income that rises with the market rather than with a council budget, and buyers pay a premium for it. Growing that mix takes time, which is why it belongs at the top of any preparation plan.
Staffing stability, especially your registered manager
A settled team with minimal agency cover reads as a durable business. Your registered manager matters most of all, because a change in that role during or just after a sale is real operational risk, and buyers price it. Retention arrangements for the manager and senior staff are best settled before a process, not negotiated inside one.
The building, and whether you own it
The freehold changes who your buyers are and how the deal is built: operators buying the trade, investors buying the bricks, and structures that separate the two. How the property is held, personally, through a company, or leased, also affects tax and structure, so it is worth advice early.
How much still runs through you
If the home depends on you being there, a buyer is purchasing a job with a business attached, and they will pay accordingly. Every responsibility moved from you to the team in the years before a sale converts directly into value on the day of one.
Multiples
What care homes sell for.
Care homes are priced as a multiple of EBITDA, meaning the yearly earnings of the business before interest, tax and depreciation, with the building often valued on its own terms alongside. The ranges below are indicative of how the market tiers homes rather than a promise about yours, because two homes with identical profit can sit in different tiers for all the reasons above.
| Profile of the home | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| Good or Outstanding rating, high occupancy, strong self-funded mix, settled team | 7 to 10× EBITDA |
| Good rating, reasonable occupancy, mixed funding | 5 to 7× EBITDA |
| Requires Improvement, occupancy or staffing concerns | 3 to 5× EBITDA |
EBITDA is adjusted for a fair management cost before the multiple is applied, and freehold value often sits on top rather than inside these ranges. Buyers also sense-check care home prices on a per-registered-bed basis, so bed numbers and registration carry real weight alongside the earnings. For a first view of where your home lands, the free valuation tool takes a few minutes, and a conversation with a partner takes it from indicative to real.
The process
What happens whenyou sell your home.
We get as many qualified buyers to the table as we can, because competition is what moves the price. The partner you meet in the first conversation stays with you until the money is in the bank.
We value the trading business and the building separately, because buyers do. We read your CQC history the way a buyer's adviser will read it, and we give you a straight view of how much of the operation depends on you personally.
You finish this stage knowing your range, the gap between today's number and an achievable one, and whether going now or going in eighteen months is the better decision for you.
This is where most of the value is built or lost. We put together the document buyers will read, the occupancy and fee analysis, the staffing picture, and the regulatory history, so a buyer and their bank can see exactly what they are taking on.
Anything that would surprise a buyer later gets found and dealt with now, rather than in month six when it costs you room to negotiate.
Approaches go out without your home being named, to a buyer list built from our own data rather than a mailing list: the big groups, the investor-backed operators, the people who buy the building, and experienced families growing from one home to several.
Your name is never attached until a buyer has been checked and has signed a confidentiality agreement. Your staff, your families and your commissioners hear nothing.
We run offers in parallel rather than one after another. How a deal is put together matters as much as the headline number here: the building treated on its own terms, any money paid later weighted properly, and your registered manager's position settled before it becomes something to haggle over.
You get a recommendation on each offer, not just a summary of it.
Buyers check everything before they pay, and this is where deals slip. We run the document room, handle the questions as they come, and keep the whole thing moving while your solicitors do their part.
With care homes that includes the CQC and safeguarding questions we already know are coming, answered from material prepared months earlier rather than scrambled together under pressure.
Who buys
A wider pool than most owners expect.
The obvious buyer is another operator, and they are certainly on the list. Behind them sits a range most owners have never been introduced to. We explore all of them, because more interest is how value gets maximised.
Regional & national operators
Acquiring single homes and small groups to build density, particularly where occupancy and ratings are strong.
Investor-backed care platforms
Among the most active buyers of well-run homes, often valuing the property and the business separately.
Property investors & REITs
Specialist property funds buying the home and leasing it back to an operator. An American model gaining real traction in UK care, and particularly relevant if you own your freehold.
Families & experienced operators
Growing from one home to several through buying rather than building, usually with committed lending behind them.
What happens next.
If you are starting to think about selling your home, or someone has already approached you, the next step is a call with one of the partners.
On that call, a partner will
- Walk you through how a care home sale runs
- Answer whatever questions you arrive with
- Give you honest first feedback on your home
- Explain how a typical engagement works
- Give you an indication of what it costs
Nothing to prepare, nothing to commit to, and no obligation at the end of it.
Your questions
Common questions about selling a care home.
Care home valuations combine trading business value with property value, and the two are often assessed separately even within a single transaction. The dominant drivers are CQC rating, occupancy against registered capacity, the fee mix between private and local-authority residents, staffing stability, and whether you own the freehold. Two homes with the same turnover can be years of profit apart on price.
More than any other single factor. A Good or Outstanding rating is close to a precondition for serious buyer and lender interest. Any outstanding action should be resolved well before a process starts, not disclosed for the first time during due diligence. Be ready to walk a buyer through your last two inspection reports in detail.
Yes, materially. Whether you own the property changes who your buyers are and how the deal is built, whether that is operators buying the trade, investors buying the building, or a structure that separates the two. Whether the home is held personally, through a separate property company, or leased also affects deal structure and tax treatment, so it should be clarified early.
Retention of the registered manager materially affects buyer confidence, because a change in that role during or shortly after a sale creates real operational risk. It is worth deciding what retention arrangements make sense for your manager and senior staff ahead of a process, rather than negotiating it under pressure later.
It is already part of how buyers think about the sector, because its recommendations could shape fees and funding for years. Well-run homes with a strong self-funded mix are the least exposed to whatever it concludes, which is one more reason the funding mix matters to your value. We follow the commission closely and write about it in the newsroom.
A rumour of sale can unsettle staff, families and commissioners long before a deal exists. Approaches go out anonymised, disclosure is staged, and buyers are qualified before your home's name is ever attached. The harder question is internal, meaning when and how you tell key staff, and we work through that with you before any external outreach begins.
Well-run homes with a Good or Outstanding rating, high occupancy and a strong self-funded mix typically attract the highest multiples, with the market tiering downward for mixed funding, and again for regulatory or occupancy concerns. The building is often valued separately on top. The honest answer for any individual home needs its figures, which is what the free valuation is for.
Six to nine months is typical from formal engagement to completion. Preparation adds anywhere from three to twelve months on top, and that is usually where the most value is built or lost. Homes with unresolved regulatory or occupancy issues take materially longer, and often complete at a lower number.
The newsroom
Useful reading forcare home owners.
Draft
Buyers Read Your CQC Rating Before They Read Your Accounts
What a buyer checks before they make an offer, and why the rating sets the ceiling on your price.
Draft
One Care Home, Two Assets
Why the building and the business get valued separately, and what that means for how your deal is put together.
Draft
Your Registered Manager Is Worth More Than Your Extension
The one member of staff a buyer will ask about first, and what happens to your price if they leave.
