Selling a care home or domiciliary care business in the UK

You own a UK care home group or a domiciliary / live-in care business worth between £5M and £50M in enterprise value. A regional residential or nursing care group of three to fifteen homes. A domiciliary care business with hourly and live-in services. A specialist provider (complex needs, dementia, learning disability, mental health residential). Most likely some combination of private-pay, Local Authority funded and CCG / ICB contracted revenue.

The buyer pool is segmented. PE-backed consolidators dominate domiciliary care acquisitions. Larger strategic care operators acquire across both residential and domiciliary. Freehold-heavy residential portfolios attract a separate property-led buyer pool — REIT-style investors, OpCo/PropCo specialists, and infrastructure-style capital — willing to pay premium pricing for the property and lease the operating business back. The right process design unlocks both pools simultaneously.

We engage 12 to 24 months before a target exit. The longer window matters because the highest-return preparation work in care — addressing CQC standing across every site, documenting occupancy and payer mix trajectories, surfacing payment model performance, and (for freehold-heavy portfolios) preparing the property and operating business to be sold separately or together — takes time.

This is not the right fit if your business is below £5M EV, or if CQC standing is unresolved at material sites. In both cases the readiness phase comes first. It is also not the right fit if you are committed to a specific bilateral approach already; that is a different mandate.

Buyer diligence in UK care M&A focuses on six items. Each is fixable in advance, and each consistently drives the difference between top-of-range and median-multiple outcomes.

CQC standing first. Outstanding-rated portfolios attract premium pricing. Requires Improvement or Inadequate ratings are usually fixable but materially affect both buyer appetite and price if unaddressed. We typically advise addressing remediable CQC issues 6 to 12 months before any process so the rating is settled by the time the data room opens.

Occupancy and FTE clients second. For residential care, average occupancy across the portfolio and per-site is the headline. For domiciliary care, FTE clients, weekly hours delivered, and client retention. Premium pricing requires consistent occupancy above 88-90% in residential and stable FTE client growth in domiciliary.

Payer mix third. The split between private-pay, Local Authority funded, CCG / ICB funded and NHS funded revenue determines both the buyer pool and the multiple. Higher private and CCG-funded revenue generally supports stronger multiples; LA-funded revenue is predictable but margin-constrained. We help owners present payer mix and average weekly rates honestly and in the right comparative context.

Property structure fourth. Freehold-heavy residential portfolios open the property-led buyer pool in addition to the operating buyer pool. We typically run the process to maximise outcome from both pools simultaneously, with OpCo/PropCo structuring where it produces a better total outcome.

Carer and nurse retention fifth. The single biggest operational risk in this sector and a primary diligence concern. Buyers look at carer tenure, training depth, agency-usage ratios, and wage benchmarks against the regional market. Premium pricing requires a credible retention story.

Local Authority and CCG contract novation sixth. We map the contractual position on every material LA/CCG/ICB contract, flagging any novation or consent requirements ahead of time so they can be planned around rather than becoming a late-stage surprise.

Our six-stage process runs senior-led from first conversation to completion. For care, three things shape execution.

Regulated and contractual diligence sit on longer clocks than commercial diligence. CQC reports across every site, LA / CCG / ICB contract novation, property and lease diligence, and (for any open commissioning matters) ongoing dialogue with commissioners. We build all of this into the process design from the start.

Buyer mapping covers two distinct pools simultaneously: operating acquirers (PE consolidators and strategic operators) and property-led acquirers. The right process design surfaces interest from both, often producing the strongest total outcome through an OpCo/PropCo structure rather than a single-pool sale. Our buyer mapping is supported by our proprietary technology layer for surfacing acquirer signals.

Carer and senior team engagement is structured into the process design from the start. Get this wrong and the deal stalls; get it right and the buyer pays for the team alongside the assets. See the healthcare services pillar for context and mental health services for the closest specialist niche.