• 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 »

As cap rates rise, AL prices stay

Last week, we wrote that while the average price per unit for IL communities fell by over $30,000 from the calendar year 2014 to the four quarters ending Q2:15, the average cap rate remained at 7.4%. Meanwhile, the inverse was true for the assisted living market. The average price per unit for AL communities rose slightly from $188,700 to $189,500, just a 0.4% change, over the same period, but the average cap rate rose 15 basis points from 7.75% in 2014 to 7.9% in the four quarters ending Q2:15. This could partially be explained by the fact that the IL market can be more mercurial than the AL market, as there is a more constant and stable need for assisted living. But to explain the rise... Read More »

As prices fall, IL cap rates stay

The average price per unit for independent living had the most dramatic change of the other acuity classes (a 13% drop from 2014 to the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, compared to a 0.4% increase for assisted living and a 3% drop for skilled nursing in the same time period), so one would expect some move in average cap rate, presumably a move up. But, the average IL cap rate for the 12-months ending June 30 did not budge from its 2014 level of 7.4%. Perhaps the quality of IL transactions hasn’t changed, with owners of high-quality communities still tempted by the high valuations, but there just have not been as many of those ultra-high end sales this year. Read More »

Cap Rates And Reality

There appears to be a feeding frenzy on where cap rates should be, and the frenzy is only taking them lower. Did you read about the fully stabilized assisted living community that sold for a 3.5% cap rate on first year numbers? You didn’t? April fools, neither did I. But don’t be surprised if it happens given the way the market is going. Two months ago, while attending a seniors housing conference, we heard a rather matter-of-fact statement that cap rates for “A” properties were in the range of 5.5% to 6.0%, and “B” properties were in the broad 6% range. While our annual statistics do not bear this out, we do know that there are transactions done with cap rates between 5% and 6%, with a... Read More »