Ideal's £33m sale and lease-back of homes

THE care homes business owned by Yorkshire entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson has agreed a £33m sale and lease-back deal for seven of its properties.

The transaction frees up cash for Ideal Care Homes, which is part of the Garforth-based LNT Group conglomerate, as it continues to grow. The unnamed buyer will take a freehold on the bricks and mortar for 33.35m, representing an average price of 80,000 per bed. Ideal will lease them back for 35 years and continue as operator.

LNT chairman Mr Tomlinson said: "Most UK care home companies have either been slow or unable to react to the market forces that will shape the care sector over the next two to three years. Values of poor quality stock will continue to fall, new build costs will continue to rise and access to capital, particularly for development, will remain constrained for some time."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ideal, which will turn over 13m this year, recently reached the 1,000-bed milestone. Ideal's high-spec homes include all en-suite accommodation, flat screen televisions, telephone and internet facilities, sensory gardens and in-house cinemas.

The deal comes as sister-company LNT Construction sold one of its new-build care homes, near Derby, to MHA Care Group (Methodist Homes for the Aged), for 73,000 per registered bed space.

LNT Construction has a pipeline of 32 care home developments and will continue to grow the Ideal portfolio while selling several of its care home developments.

Related topics: