As the care sector undergoes major demographic and financial shifts, CoolCare recently teamed up with a leading healthcare property adviser Christie & Co to deliver a webinar on how care home operators can prepare for growth and investment opportunities.
Over the past two years, 20% of our customers have expanded their portfolios – many achieving fee levels and occupancy rates above national averages. The webinar, hosted by our Managing Director Fiona Hale and Christie & Co’s Managing Director for Healthcare Richard Lunn, discussed practical insights into what drives value in today’s care home landscape.
Fiona Haleexplained: “We see first-hand how the right systems and visibility can help care homes increase occupancy, reduce agency reliance and improve margins. With growing interest from investors, and more operators expanding, we wanted to give the sector access to real expertise on how to prepare their business for growth and maximise value.”
Here are the key points highlighted in the webinar that shed light on what drives a care home’s value today, and how operators can position themselves for sustainable growth:
Market Challenges Met by Strong Demand
Richard Lunn kicked off with an insightful overview of the current market landscape. Care home operators are undoubtedly facing a range of significant challenges, including rising staffing costs, increases in national insurance contributions and tighter financial pressures due to shrinking local authority-funded margins. These factors have added complexity to running a care home profitably in today’s environment.
Despite cautious sentiment, the market remains active, with over 110 care homes transacted in early 2025 alone, driven by growing interest from regional operators, first-time buyers and investors looking to scale through quality acquisitions.
Key Valuation Drivers in 2025
Richard Lunn explained that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) multiples range from 5 to 8 times for older properties, rising to 8 to 12 times for modern, purpose-built homes. Profit margins are also key, with homes achieving adjusted net margins of 15% to 25% and top-performing considerably more. Occupancy rates above 90% and positive fee growth trends are both major contributors to valuation uplift. Although, CQC ratings remain a vital benchmark for buyers assessing operational quality.
Asset quality also continues to influence valuations. Homes with higher ensuite ratios, better day spaces and potential for refurbishment or extension are generally seen as more valuable. Beyond bricks and mortar, digitisation and ESG performance are increasingly important to institutional buyers, many of whom will not invest in homes lacking robust operational systems or environmental accountability.
Addressing the Challenge of an Ageing Estate
The UK care estate remains heavily reliant on older buildings, with over half of care homes built before 1999 and just 20% constructed in the last 15 years. Richard highlighted this as both a challenge and an opportunity. For existing operators, retrofitting older stock can offer a cost-effective route to improving layout, energy performance and resident experience – all of which can enhance valuation. At the same time, developers continue to focus on building new, high-quality homes for the private pay market, where the strongest valuations are typically seen.
Evolving Buyer Behaviour and Portfolio Strategies
Buyer trends are shifting. The market is currently dominated by independent operators and regional groups, typically running between two and 10 homes. Many larger corporations are focusing on developing new homes rather than acquiring existing ones, although some are reshaping their portfolios by selling non-core or geographically dispersed properties.
Christie & Co has supported several major transactions in this area, including asset sales from providers such as Four Seasons Health Care and HC-One, often placing homes with smaller, more agile regional operators.
Role of CoolCare in Supporting Growth
During the webinar, Fiona shared operational data showing how our users are consistently outperforming the market. Customers using our digital platform have, on average, achieved 11% higher weekly fees, maintained 4% higher occupancy and reduced agency staff usage by 13%. These improvements translate directly into better profitability, more consistent care delivery and, ultimately, stronger valuations.
Our software offers care home operators with integrated workforce planning, occupancy monitoring, finance reporting and digital invoicing. These functions enable transparency and control to enable business decisions and to prove operational competency to prospective investors.
Preparing Care Home for Growth
As the care home sector continues to change, operators that aim for strong occupancy, effective operations and digitalisation will be best placed to thrive. Whether they’re looking to grow, sell or just enhance performance, it is time to make sure that the systems and strategy are aligned with what today’s investors and purchasers seek.
To learn how our software can support your operational performance, improve your margins and help you maximise the value of your care business, visit our website for more information.
Alternatively, to watch the full webinar visit, https://coolcare.co.uk/webinar/valuing-my-care-business-preparing-for-growth/
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