Key highlights as well as future trends identified in the report, include:

• In spite of operational challenges, occupancy rates for UK care homes rose for the fifth consecutive year, while average fee levels outstripped RPI inflation for the fourth year running. In addition, one-third of homes within the UK achieved EBITDARM as a percentage of income surpassing 30%. The disrupters also have not fettered investor appetite as Knight Frank advised on a record volume of circa £12bn of Healthcare deals in 2017, most notably transactions in relation to Bupa Care Homes, Helen McArdle Care, Porthaven Care Homes and Regard Group.

• With investors becoming more accustomed to the sector, we envisage a strong appetite for investment to continue in the year ahead. We will also continue to see a strong interest from overseas investors, taking advantage of the weak sterling.

• A further trend set to continue in 2018, is the growing demand for care beds, driven by ageing population and given the estimated shortfall of 148,777 market standard beds by 2021 coupled with 6,600 care homes at risk of closure over the next five years.  

The publication above discusses these issues. 

View the UK Healthcare Market overview.