• Bullish Move by Welltower

    Welltower has been a growth and M&A machine under the leadership of Shankh Mitra. As of October 27, the REIT has closed or has under contract close to $14 billion of pro rata gross investments across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom this year. These include more than 700 seniors housing properties with more than 46,000 units. Not too... Read More »
  • Welltower Shatters Single-Day Dollar Volume Record

    October was already on its way to setting records for M&A activity in the seniors housing and care industry before Welltower announced the most transaction dollar volume we have ever seen in a single day when it released its third quarter earnings. A couple of the largest portfolio acquisitions took place across the pond, but the REIT also... Read More »
  • South Carolina Portfolio Trades

    Newmark has hit a rich vein of activity, announcing several closings in the last few days. First, the team sold three communities across the Greenville, South Carolina, area on behalf of Atlas Senior Living. The communities were built between 2014 and 2016 and totaled 306 units, including 108 independent living, 144 assisted living and 54 memory... Read More »
  • Blueprint Closes in Kentucky and Colorado

    Blueprint has been adding to our record-breaking October M&A haul, announcing a couple of closings in the last week. First, Kyle Hallion handled another sale in his home state of Kentucky, this time on behalf of a local family owner/operator with deep ties to this asset’s local market. The senior care facility features 64 skilled nursing beds... Read More »
  • Southern California Communities Get New Owner

    Berkadia handled the sale and financing of two seniors housing communities in Southern California. The transaction included an 84-unit assisted living and memory care community in the San Diego suburbs and a 72-unit memory care community in the Los Angeles suburbs. These were older vintage properties with some Medicaid census but were very strong... Read More »
Beth Mace New Director at Brookdale

Beth Mace New Director at Brookdale

Brookdale Senior Living recently held its annual meeting of shareholders, and Beth Mace was voted in as a new member of its Board of Directors. Not only that, but she received more votes than any other nominee (157,658,156), and fewer “against” votes than any other nominee.     As readers know, we have complained that for many years Brookdale’s board has lacked any outside directors with any real knowledge of the seniors housing business, and now they have one. Beth recently retired as the head of research at NIC, and had been responsible for providing financial data to the industry to try to help investors and lenders understand certain dynamics, and how those dynamics... Read More »
Brookdale Posts Census Increase…Finally

Brookdale Posts Census Increase…Finally

We are now beyond this year’s muted flu season, and Brookdale Senior Living posted a small increase in occupancy for May, which should be the beginning of the peak summer selling period. If they don’t see larger increases in the next three months, it may be a rough start to next year. May average occupancy increased by 20 basis points over April, to 78.1%, while month-end occupancy increased by 30 basis points over April to 79.5%. Second quarter-to-date weighted average occupancy increased by 160 basis points to 78.0% compared with 76.4% in the comparable 2023 period.  Unfortunately for Brookdale, this significantly underperforms the market. Using Welltower’s same-community SHOP... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: WSJ’s Private Equity Analysis in Health Care

60 Seconds with Swett: WSJ’s Private Equity Analysis in Health Care

Last week, The Wall Street Journal published an article examining private equity activity in the healthcare M&A market, specifically that its activity was down compared with 2023 because of increased regulatory scrutiny and higher interest rates. The article cited Pitchbook transaction data, and some of the numbers left our editors at our sister platform LevinPro HC, which exclusively covers the healthcare M&A market, scratching their heads. According to Pitchbook, as cited in the article, there were 180 PE add-on deals, or when a PE firm buys a company through a portfolio company, through May 28. Our numbers are higher, as LevinPro HC recorded 193 deals from a PE-backed company,... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: WSJ’s Private Equity Analysis in Health Care

60 Seconds with Swett: How Serious Is the Minimum Staffing Mandate?

We conducted a survey of our readers, asking some questions on the skilled nursing M&A market. Most of the results will be featured in the June issue of The SeniorCare Investor, released later this week, but here are a couple of takeaways from it. First, we asked whether the threat of the minimum staffing mandate (as it currently stands) would impact buyer demand for SNFs. The majority, or 72%, said “somewhat” while 21% said “not at all.” Only 7% thought that there would be a significant impact. Posing the same question, but how lenders’ ability to lend for SNFs would be impacted, also saw the majority, or 64%, of respondents say “somewhat” and 14% believed it would have no impact.... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What if Boomers Are Not the Disruptors?

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What if Boomers Are Not the Disruptors?

How many times have you heard that the boomers will be major disruptors of the seniors housing sector, causing providers to rethink, and change, how they provide their care and services? Too many times? I admit, I have been guilty of this as well. But I have been thinking about this concept (I know, a scary thought), and now I have some doubts. What do seniors housing providers do? They provide housing, care, meals, and an environment for socialization, among other services, all in a safe setting. Since I am in the middle of the pack of boomers, I don’t see those services changing much. Tweaked? Of course. But the basics should always be there. Boomers are going to be very demanding, or so... Read More »
The Current Lending Environment for Senior Care Properties

The Current Lending Environment for Senior Care Properties

The financing process has killed dozens (and hundreds) of deals in the last couple of years, and yet M&A activity is near record levels in the seniors housing and care industry. So deals are getting done, and not just with cash. Who has been lending and at what cost to the borrower? What hurdles have to be overcome? And when capital costs do lower, how can owners and operators best prepare to finance the oncoming wave of deals and demographics? Read More »