Care Homes for Sale

Axis Partnership are business transfer agents who assist with a wide selection of residential care homes for sale in the UK including Suffolk, Essex, London, East Anglia, South East, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Home Counties, England, South West, North West, South East, Midlands and West Midlands. As well as residential care homes for sale, we also have a number of agencies specialising in domiciliary care (also known as Dom Care) for sale.

Click here to view our current selection of Care Homes For Sale

In this article we provide an overview of the main types of care homes and agencies offering Dom Care for sale.

Residential Care Homes for Sale
A residential care home provides care for many people in one building or complex. Residential care homes usually specialise in caring for people with one particular type of condition or with similar needs, for instance the elderly, people with learning disabilities or physical disabilities, people with dementia or mental illness, and so on.

In terms of running a care home as a business, this focus on a particular segment of people offers economy of scale for the owner, making it possible to offer specialist services (e.g. geriatric or psychiatric nursing) which would be expensive to provide on a one-to-one basis, to a larger number of people. This also makes the service more affordable for its customers.

Purchasers of residential care homes for sale will ideally be those already in the industry with sector knowledge looking to expand their operations within a region.  It would be unlikely for an independent buyer who has maybe 2-3 homes in one county to buy a home at the other end of the country, as there is an element of hands-on management involved. However, a national provider of residential homes would more than likely look at any home that comes up for sale. Owning and running a residential care home requires an understanding of CQC requirements, local authorities and some knowledge about how to market the business to obtain private tenants. If a home has a registered manager in place and is classified as fully managed, it is possible for an individual with no care experience to be able to buy a care home.

Residential Care Homes for Sale – click here to view our current care businesses for sale

Domiciliary Care Agencies for Sale
A domiciliary care agency (often referred to as “dom care agencies” within the industry) arranges for individuals to be cared for in their own home. The type of domiciliary care offered by such agencies can vary greatly. General living assistance care involves help with everyday activities such as preparing meals, washing, getting out and about and general companionship. Other types of care involve higher levels of assistance such as care immediately following hospital discharge, or ongoing care for disabled persons. A domiciliary carer will typically attend the client’s home for a set amount of time per day or per week, but will not live there.

Domiciliary care can be provided on a short term basis (e.g. providing respite for a long term carer or to help someone through a particular phase such as recuperation) or a long term basis (where someone needs ongoing help to remain in their own home). Running a domiciliary agency therefore involves finding and retaining carers willing to take on long term placements, as well as cultivating a bank of carers who can be called upon at short notice.
A dom care business depends heavily on reputation and referrals from friends and family, with customers placing great store on the friendliness and reliability of carers. A dom care agency owner, therefore, needs to be skilled at selecting staff with the right temperament and personality.

The purchaser of a dom care agency might be a private individual looking for a career change, or someone already working in the care sector seeking to work for themselves.
Dom care agencies for sale are also sought after by other independent dom care agencies looking for expansion, and national care providers wanting to expand through acquisitions rather than organically. Ideally the buyer would have experience in domiciliary care and an understanding of how local authorities and CQC work.

Domiciliary Care Agencies for Sale – click here to view our current care businesses for sale

Live In Care Agencies for Sale
A live in care agency is a special type of domiciliary care agency, specialising in providing carers to live in clients’ homes while providing domiciliary care. A live in carer enables someone to receive the type of round the clock support they would get if they lived in a residential care home, but without having to leave their own home. And because the client does not have to pay extra for accommodation, the cost of a live in carer can often compare favourably with the costs of going into a care home or a nursing home.

The qualifications and skills of live in carers can vary greatly depending on the client and the type of care required. Some clients simply want help with cooking and cleaning, while others have medical conditions requiring more specialist care, in which case the agency needs to be registered as a nursing agency, as well as a domiciliary care agency.

A purchaser of a live in care agency will more than likely already be providing that form of care themselves, this is seen as a niche part of the industry that requires full understanding of the regulations surrounding it.  There also needs to be an understanding behind matching service users to carers and vice versa.

Live In Care Agencies for Sale – click here to view our current care businesses for sale

Franchise Care Agencies
Taking on a franchise care agency can be an ideal way into the care agency market for people with no experience of the care sector.

The downside of being a franchisee is that you never own the business and you pay a premium up front and every month for the duration of the franchise. However, this is made up for by the training and support provided. For instance, you will learn how to market the business to obtain clients, how to tender with local authorities, how to recruit and manage staff, how to deal with complaints, and many other aspects. You can also work towards obtaining the necessary qualifications to become a registered manager, which is a skill that can be taken forward into an independent business later on.

Once you have obtained the knowledge to run an agency on your own, you no longer require the assistance of the franchise. However, it can be very difficult to break yourself away from the franchise as you will be contracted in for long periods of time, up to 10 years in some cases. You will also continue to pay a premium or royalty to the franchise company even if you never require their help again. You are often restricted to geographical areas as well which will limit the amount of expansion you go after, and if you want to buy another agency you will require authority from the franchise to do this. It would also be unlikely that you could buy another business and not bring this under your franchise arrangement, and you would then have to also contribute royalties for the extra work.  Royalties paid are usually between 3-10% of your turnover.

Franchise Care Agencies for Sale – click here to view our current care businesses for sale

Independent Care Agencies
By contrast with a franchise agency, buying an independent care agency means that you own the business outright. This means that you can run the business any way you want (provided statutory obligations are met) and all the profits are yours to be put back into the business, invested in staff training or however you see fit.

You can take the business geographically where you want and tender for work in other counties to grow organically, and also expand through acquisition should this be the route you want to take and if you have the funding available. The only person you have to ask permission is yourself, and as long as you work within CQC regulations and Local Authority requirements, your profit margins should be pretty good.  You will also be entering or expanding into an industry that is a necessity of life and where demand is constantly growing.

There are downsides to buying an independent company however. Firstly, the cost is usually a great deal more than for a franchise, so there is a bigger financial risk involved (although this is reduced if you are taking over an existing successful agency). Secondly, it will have been run the way the previous owner wanted, which you may or may not like and which may take some time to turn around to your preferences.

Budget cuts are currently the biggest problem facing all providers in the care sector. With local authorities trying to spend less, the private sector is becoming bigger. The regulations are changing on a regular basis and more paperwork is becoming a pain to most business owners in care.  The industry is also becoming tougher. A number of years ago a nurse or carer could set up their own business and easily land themselves a contract with the local authority which gave them great profit margins and a steady stream of work. Now there is a lot more competition and agencies need a business mind behind them that can think of HR, marketing, PR and getting more work on the books by getting out into the private and public sectors and working for it.

Independent Care Agencies for Sale – click here to view our current care businesses for sale