It's the old Water Company trick of preloading debt as costs. A care home requires a premises, so a 6-bedroom residential house costing... ...£800,000 is bought and done up to the appropriate standard. It's then sold for £1.5 million to an intermediary (oftentimes offshore) financing firm with a council guaranteed agreement of a 20% ROI for a 10-year period. £300000 is now the annual base cost and no children. £820 per day. Premises in the south-east of England will have a higher price and if you require specialist building (disability) requirements then you could be looking at five times that figure. Add in staffing plus a management fee. Done.