Acquisition is a fasttrack to getting bigger compared to securing land and planning approval to build new stock.

Forecasts indicate another 50,000+ beds will be required for aged care over the next 10 years, requiring $12.5 billion capital.

The Government is also freeing up the competitive market while at the same time reducing its funding – creating demand that will exceed supply.

Currently the government funds 82.6 places in residential care per 1,000 people aged 70+. By 2021 they will fund 80 places. While people will stay at home longer, improvements in medicine will sustain increasingly frail people in residential care longer.

Demand will exceed supply and with deregulated pricing and a public conditioned to the fact they will have to pay for care, operators have the potential to increase margins significantly.