News Openings of new care homes on the up as closures stall


Care home opening rose by 6.5 per cent in the first six months of the year compared with the same period in 2020, according to a report by CSI Market Intelligence. At the same time, care home closures


were flat as, says CSI, the market proved to be resilient despite the pressures from Covid-19 and the government’s stalled proposals for sector reform. care funding The new care home openings provided


around 4,400 new beds and, due to the average size of a care home that opened being larger than those that closed, resulted in a net increase of around 1,000. That compares to a 153 net increase


throughout the whole of 2020, which was the only annual net increase in beds since before 2015. Nearly a third of all openings this year have been in south-east England, which accounted for a fifth of all closures. There were no openings at all in the north- east England, which accounted for four cent


of care home closures in the first six months of the year. The operator with the most openings was


Signature Senior Lifestyle, which opened nine homes, followed by Barchester Healthcare with five and West Northamptonshire Council with four openings. In addition, West Northamptonshire Council purchased three care homes from Shaw Healthcare. Some 86 per cent of care home openings were in the private sector, nine per cent in the not-for-profit and four per


Sunrise Senior Living and Gracewell


Healthcare to exit UK market Care providers Care UK and Signature Senior Lifestyle (Signature) are to take over all Sunrise Senior Living and Gracewell Healthcare homes in the UK. The announcement follows a decision


by Sunrise Senior Living US to focus its growth and development within North America. Signature will welcome 20 homes (18 Sunrise and 2 Gracewell) with Care UK


welcoming the other 26 (7 Sunrise and 19 Gracewell) to their portfolio. The transfer of the homes is anticipated


to take place towards the end of the year. Sunrise Senior Living and Gracewell


Healthcare chief executive Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald said: “Sunrise has been proud to serve thousands of residents over the past 20 years in the UK and to provide a great place to work for our team members”.


cent in the public sector. That compares with 74 per cent of closures


in the private, 21 per cent in the not-for-profit and five per cent in the public sectors. Of those homes that closed, 52 per cent


did so with a Care Quality Commission rating of Good. Some 74 per cent of all homes carry that rating, suggesting it was commercial reasons rather than care quality that led to their closure. The analysis is included in CSI’s Say Hello


Wave Goodbye report. “It was a breath of fresh air to see a marked change in the trends of recent years where closures were outnumbering openings at a two to one ratio and is especially encouraging considering what the sector has had to battle through over the last 15 months,” said founder and director Mike Short. To read the complete six-month review,


visit www.csi-marketintelligence.co.uk/shwg. html.


Belgian REIT makes first move into UK market


Belgian real estate company Cofinimmo has acquired a trio of southern English care homes operated by Country Court for a total investment of £57m. The care homes, which together


comprise 196 beds, are the 66-bed Ferrars Hall in Huntingdon; the 66-bed Lakeview Lodge in Milton Keynes and 64-bed Oakview Lodge in Welwyn Garden City. For each of the three sites, a triple net


lease has been agreed for a fix term of 35 years. The rents will be indexed annually according to RPI and the gross rental yield will be in line with the current market conditions. Cofinimmo said it entered the UK


care home market because the need for investment in the sector is high. “With our entry into British healthcare


Cinnamon Care Collection has opened Parkfield Grange, a 74-bed care complex in Stourbridge in the West Midlands consisting of 68 ensuite bedrooms and six one- bedroom care suites, plus a private dining room, café-bar, cinema, lounges, dining rooms and landscaped gardens. Parkfield Grange is also equipped with infection control innovations, including ozone decontamination units with proven airborne disinfection capabilities.


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real estate, we take an important step in the execution of our corporate strategy: to build and to consolidate our leadership position in European healthcare real estate,” added chief executive Jean- Pierre Hanin. “With the United Kingdom, we add a


ninth country to our geographic presence, the third new country we entered this year.”


www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • August 2021


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