• 60 Seconds with Swett: Navigating the Next Five Years in Seniors Housing M&A

    Are we entering the golden age of seniors housing? Next year, the first baby boomers will start turning 80, and with the current lack of new construction, occupancy rates are already rising before the real demographic wave hits. Many investors, both veterans and those new to our space, will feel pressure to grow their seniors housing holdings to... Read More »
  • Blackstone Sheds Another Asset from Its Seniors Housing Portfolio

    Blueprint handled a couple of sales in Florida and Nevada. The first in Florida involved a global private equity firm selling a 145-unit assisted living and memory care community in Boca Raton, Florida. Ben Firestone, Dillon Rudy and Jacob Ghel of Blueprint facilitated The Atrium at Boca Raton’s ownership transfer. The community presented certain... Read More »
  • CareTrust REIT Establishes SHOP Platform

    Three Texas seniors housing communities with 270 assisted living and memory care units were acquired by CareTrust REIT, Inc. The publicly traded REIT purchased the communities for $40 million, or $148,100 per unit. This marks the first investment of CareTrust’s SHOP platform. The communities were 86% occupied at the time of acquisition and will... Read More »
  • Ensign Grows Through Separate Transactions in Three States

    The Ensign Group, Inc. increased its portfolio through three separate acquisitions in Kansas, Arizona and Colorado. The publicly traded provider expanded its growing Midwest footprint through its Kansas acquisition of the real estate and operations of Willow Point Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, a 45-bed skilled nursing facility in Kansas... Read More »
  • Developer/Operator Divests to PE Firm

    A developer and operator sold Rivertown Ridge, a Class-A seniors housing community in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming, Michigan, to a private equity firm. This community, built in 2020, features 152 units of independent living, assisted living and memory care, and has exhibited strong performance.  The seller, Redstone Homes, was... Read More »
Fourth Quarter Occupancy Nudges Up

Fourth Quarter Occupancy Nudges Up

Some good news was recently released by NIC MAP, showing occupancy rates for stabilized seniors housing communities (independent living and assisted living) increasing by 10 basis points sequentially, but a four-basis point decline year over year. The assisted living market, which has been the most troubled over the past several years, saw a 20-basis point increase sequentially, but a 14-basis point decline year over year. The bottom line is that while some progress has been made recently, we are still way behind a year and two ago, with a long way to go to really get to “stabilization” as an industry. The other good news is that absorption is running ahead of trailing-12 month new... Read More »
Dissecting the Jump in Average Assisted Living Values

Dissecting the Jump in Average Assisted Living Values

It’s amazing the difference that one deal can make. We are talking about Welltower’s $1.76 billion sale of its entire Benchmark Senior Living portfolio to KKR and its impact on the average private per assisted living unit sold in the most recent four quarters. That sale, which came in at $425,400 per unit across the 48 properties, pushed the sector’s weighted average up to $252,900 per unit, a 23% increase from the most recent four-quarter period ($205,900 per unit) and 36% from calendar year 2018 ($186,400 per unit), according to The Seniors Housing Acquisition & Investment Report. We should note that this average is likely to change as more deals from 2019 float to the surface, and... Read More »
Independent Living Values Continue Impressive Rise

Independent Living Values Continue Impressive Rise

As the assisted living market is mired in a difficult operating environment, plagued with overdevelopment in some markets, heavy discounting and stubbornly low census, independent living continues to show its resiliency. According the our rolling four-quarter pricing multiples, a product of The Seniors Housing Acquisition & Investment Report, investors paid an average of $272,300 per unit for independent living properties in the last four-quarter period ending this September. That represents a 6% increase from the average of the four quarters ended June 2019 of $257,800 per unit, and a 14% jump from the calendar year 2018 average of $238,100 per unit. So, what could cause such a... Read More »
Skilled Nursing Values Hold Steady

Skilled Nursing Values Hold Steady

The skilled nursing M&A market has continued to surprise us. Despite numerous headwinds, especially involving the rising cost and scarcity of labor as well as the declining lengths of stay and census across the industry, buyers are still flocking to the sector. And as a result, they have kept values steady at just below $80,000 per bed. In the last four quarters ended September 30, skilled nursing facilities sold on average for $78,500 per bed, just slightly higher than the $77,500 per bed average price for 2018, according to The Skilled Nursing Acquisition & Investment Report. We should note this is a preliminary figure, as deals will inevitably float to the surface as the year... Read More »
Good Occupancy News From NIC

Good Occupancy News From NIC

There was some good news on the occupancy front, according the data just released from NIC MAP, but the assisted living sector isn’t out of the woods yet. Sequentially, seniors housing (including independent living and assisted living) saw a 30-basis point increase in occupancy to 88.0% for properties in the top-31 primary metropolitan markets. For primary and secondary markets combined, the increase was slightly more moderate at 20 basis points, sequentially, to 87.8%. When separating out the community types, independent living saw a 20-basis point increase to 90.2%, while assisted living rose 30 basis points to 85.4%. For stabilized seniors housing properties, occupancy grew to 89.8%, a... Read More »
August M&A Hits High Note

August M&A Hits High Note

If you have been following us this summer, you’ll know that after a torrid second quarter when we recorded 113 publicly announced transactions, M&A slowed significantly in July with just 26 deals. Even June was relatively slow with 31 deals, compared with 39 in April and 42 in May. However, similar to last year, the market rebounded yet again in August, with 40 announced acquisitions so far. Inevitably, more acquisitions will be unearthed that should push the total up. Seniors housing deals made up 58% of the monthly total and saw 128 total properties transacted. Brookfield’s acquisition of Australian senior living operator Aveo Group for approximately $860 million was easily the... Read More »