Aged care operator who acquired HT Retirement’s site in QLD revealed
Arcare, which is pursuing an aggressive development strategy, has opened 733 aged care beds this year, and will develop the Rothwell land for aged care.
Victorian-based private operator Arcare – which on Tuesday opened Arcare Wright in Canberra, its 60th residence and seventh new home of 2025 – has purchased a site in Rothwell, Queensland.
The Knowles Group-owned operator has purchased HT Retirement’s 9,825sqm site, which has development approval for 97 retirement living units over three storeys, for $6.05 million in an off-market sale.
Arcare, which is pursuing an aggressive development strategy, has opened 733 aged care beds this year, and will develop the Rothwell land for aged care.
Sentiment has turned
Sam Biggins, National Head of Healthcare and Sciences with Knight Frank, the selling agent, said the sale is part of a shift he is seeing in the market.
Landlords looking to sell landbanked sites 12-18 months ago have changed their minds and are now holding onto them, and many groups, such as Arcare, are now actively acquiring sites up and down the East Coast of Australia, he said.
In addition, more legacy sites are being acquired to be redeveloped.
However, Sam noted the traditional HoldCo structure, where the owner owns the site and operates the facility, is preventing more capital from entering the sector. Australian superannuation funds are gaining exposure to aged care investments overseas, where the risk profile is lower.
Sam would like to see more conversation about alternative capital structures for residential aged care in Australia as a way of attracting more capital into the sector.
Arcare’s development pipeline
In the past three months, Arcare has opened:
- Arcare Werribee (120 beds), 32km south-west of Melbourne’s CBD;
- Arcare Clyde (110 beds), 48km south-east of Melbourne’s CBD; and
- Arcare Wright (98 beds), 13km south-west of the Canberra CBD.
In 2026, the operator is on track to open:
- Mount Waverley (118 beds), 16km south-east of Melbourne’s CBD in October;
- Sunbury (136 beds), 40km north-west of Melbourne’s CBD, in November; and
- Hove (118 beds), 12km south-west of the Adelaide CBD; and
- its first home in South Australia.
Construction on a home in Gold Creek, in the ACT, is scheduled to begin in 2026.
Arcare has also acquired three sites in Melbourne. In mid-2024, it acquired Not For Profit Mercy Health’s former Maryville Hostel in Boronia, and earlier this year the operator purchased the former Rehabilitation Hospital in Melbourne’s Brighton, plus three adjoining blocks, and a former supermarket site in Essendon.
