Australia's top 10 residential aged care providers have been named in KPMG's Aged Care Market Analysis 2024 as the number of beds in the sector increased by just 0.7% in one year.
After the acquisitions of Allity, Acacia Living Group, and McKenzie Aged Care, Not For Profit Bolton Clarke moved up from third to second place between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, the period covered by the report, KPMG's seventh Aged Care Market Analysis.
Regis Aged Care, Australia's only remaining publicly listed aged care provider, dropped from second to third place on the list, which compares providers according to number of operational places.
Opal HealthCare came out on top again, with nearly 9,500 operational beds marking 11% growth over the year.
Overall, the number of beds in Australia's residential aged care market increased slightly during the year, up 0.7% to 221,467, according to the Analysis.
However, the number of aged care facilities operating in Australia decreased 0.9% or 24 facilities to 2,617.
And the number of residential aged care providers contracted 5.2% or 36 providers to 663 in FY23.
"This reduction can be attributed to continued consolidation within the market, driven by ongoing viability pressures and the impact of regulatory reforms," the report notes.
"It is anticipated the number of residential aged care providers will continue to decline in coming years."
In line with this consolidation trend, the average number of operational places per provider increased from 315 in FY22 to 334 places in FY23.
The percentage of operational beds operated by a Top 25 aged care provider continues to rise, from 42% in FY22 to 44% in FY23.
"The share of operational places run by the top 25 providers has continued to increase since FY16 and is reflective of the overall decrease of providers in the market, driven by significant merger and acquisition activity," the report states.
Other residential aged care highlights in the report include:
- 30.2% of Australia's over-85s population accessed residential aged care during the year, and
- of Australia's 413 Not For Profit aged care providers, 64% operate only one residential aged care home.
You can read our article on the KPMG report about home care here.