Things to Consider when Investing in Care Homes

As with any type of investment, the investor should take great care to define those features that make one particular Care Home a much better long term investment than another. Investing in any type of business brings factors into play that will determine the success of any investment. These factors are numerous and varied and the wise investor will seek professional advice prior to making a commitment.  We have listed below, some of the general areas that may require careful thinking prior to investing.

Importance of Location

If the future success of a particular care home is going to depend on increasing that Care Homes ratio of self-funding residents, it follows that the Care Home should be located in an area where the local population also contains a higher than average ratio of better-off families.  This approach should ensure the continued availability of self-funding residents and the provision of good levels of income to the Care Home.

Economic Capacity

Care Homes come in all sizes but as with most businesses, overheads and staff costs are more easily absorbed when the number of residents are at a sufficient level to allow efficient working conditions. Each Care Home needs to be looked at on its own merit but efficiency probably starts where the Care Home can accommodate 20 or more residents.

Facilities and services offered by the Home

As the chosen care home will be looking to attract self-funding people, the standard of accommodation, as well as outside facilities, may be a deciding factor where a family is looking to have a loved one reside there. Likewise, the offered services such as the levels of care that can be provided and the range of recreational services and personal services offered may feature highly in the families thinking.

Quality of Management and staff

You will want to ensure that the Care Home you have chosen to invest in will be properly run and staffed by people who are devoted to their task. This can be a difficult area to check but will be important as self-funding people in care homes will always be able to move should they find themselves in an establishment that is not to their liking. This is not always the case with Local Authority funded residents.