Good News On Practice Sales, Despite Pandemic
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- Published: Friday, 12 March 2021 10:25
- Written by Chris Tapper
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Despite the pandemic and lockdowns, interest in dental practice ownership appears to be growing.
A report released by Christie and Co showed some unexpected results during the lockdown - an increase in enquiries from first-time buyers.
The specialist business property advisor said in its ‘Dental Market Review 2020/21’ that the age profiles of first-time buyers were increasing, suggesting that more experienced associates were looking for greater security through practice ownership.
Although the first national UK lockdown early in 2020 ‘led to an instant and dramatic reduction in dental market activity,’ the company reported tentative re-engagement when the path to dental reopening became clearer.
The good news for NHS practice owners is that a significant portion of the £8,250,000 dental practice sales Christie and Co completed, had an NHS element.
The report also said that that the average time from launching a new instruction to an offer being accepted reduced from the prior year, from 12 weeks in 2019 versus 10.5 weeks in 2020. The company said “This could be due to vendors more readily accepting early offers in what were more challenging market conditions during the middle part of 2020.”
Christie & Co also found dental operators to be pleasantly surprised at the speed of recovery in demand for private dentistry. The company thought this might be due to heightened awareness of personal appearance from patients, due to the utilisation video calls, leading to a surge in demand for cosmetic and aesthetic dentistry, social orthodontics and implants.
“Operators also reported that some NHS patients were electing to receive private treatments as a result of lengthening waiting lists and appointment times.”
“When asked how the pandemic has impacted the economics of dentistry, 35 per cent of owners said they now have higher private revenue than before COVID-19, confirming the very quick bounce back from June 2020 when practices re-opened,” Christie and Co reported.
“When compared with Hygiene income, however, over 80 per cent stated that revenue is less than 50 per cent recovered, reflecting the continued challenges of operating with restricted patient numbers.”
“Positively though, 85 per cent of owners questioned believed that revenue will have fully recovered by the end of Q2 2021.”
Encouragingly, sales prices appear to be stable and returning to levels seen in early 2020 before the pandemic took hold.
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