Ministers face calls to regulate market in 'buy-to-let' care home rooms

Places being offered for sale for as much as £85,000 each could leave vulnerable elderly residents homeless

Age concern: even when we know a parent has needs that would make a care home the best choice, we can still feel guilty about actually making it (Alamy)

Ministers are facing calls to step in and regulate the market in controversial ‘buy-to-let’ care home places that could result in vulnerable elderly residents being left homeless.

The Independent revealed that hundreds of care home places are being offered for sale for as much as £85,000 each.

They are then rented on to residents with a “guaranteed” rental income of around 10 per cent annually and a total return on investment of up to 188 per cent over 10 years.

However the investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found the largest player in the market is a company whose managers include a struck-off solicitor, a disqualified director and a chief executive who was once the sole director of a company that held a strip club licence.

Following The Independent’s revelations Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, said there was a link between the financial sustainability of providers and the quality of care that homes offered.

She warned that unless there was proper regulation it could result in a repeat of the Southern Cross scandal in which a care home group was forced to shut down in 2011 after accumulating unsustainable debt levels.

“This is another example of the vulnerability of the sector due to the funding gap in social care,” she said.

“While I could not comment on individual cases there is a clear link between the financial stability of care home providers and the knock on implications for residents as we saw in the case of Southern Cross.”

Ben Bradshaw, the former Labour health minister who also sits on the Health Committee, said the Bureau’s investigation raised “serious questions” for ministers and regulators.

“We are dealing with elderly people, often at their most vulnerable and the records of some of those involved in this business does not instil confidence,” he said.

“Ministers need to look urgently at the findings of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and reassure themselves and the public that vulnerable elderly people and investors are not at risk.”