PHARMACISTS are expecting pharmacy valuations to rise over the next 12 months, the latest Attain Pharmacy Market Sentiment Survey reveals.
The latest edition of the survey found almost two-thirds of respondents believe stores will increase in value in the coming months with more than 17% anticipating they will "increase significantly".
The sixth iteration of the report, conducted in Mar and Apr, ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA's) decision to increase the cash rate from 0.1% to 0.35%, found less than 8% of pharmacy owners and aspiring buyers, believe prices will fall in 2022 - compared to 11% who felt the market would dip, when surveyed in Nov 2021 (PD 10 Jan).
The latest data also revealed a decline in the proportion of pharmacists looking to buy a pharmacy (44%) compared with the Nov 2021 edition of the survey (57%), while 47% of owners said they would be looking to sell a pharmacy in the next five years, up from 40% in the previous survey period.
A further 4% of owners told Attain that they were planning to bring in a junior partner, rather than selling out of their business completely, down from 18% in Nov 2021.
When it came to explaining reasons why pharmacy owners were considering selling their store, 90% cited "personal and family circumstances" - up from around 85% in the previous survey period.
Challenges finding employee pharmacists was the second most common reason prompting owners to look to sell (39%), while less than 10% of respondents, suggested the Community Pharmacy Agreement cycle was a factor motivating them to step away from a store - down from just under 30% in Nov 2021.
Attain Director, Natalie Sirianni, said the survey results showed that the pharmacy business sales market remains "quite strong and indicates that this will likely continue".
"There is very positive market sentiment for the pharmacy business sales market from both buyers and sellers," she said.
"It is important to note that this survey data is from before the recent RBA interest rate increase, so it will be interesting to see how the survey responses change in the next iteration."
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 30 May 22
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