• 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 »
National Health Investors Cuts Dividend

National Health Investors Cuts Dividend

Even though National Health Investors didn’t have to cut its dividend, management made the prudent decision to reduce its quarterly dividend by 18% to 90 cents a share. The yield had been at the high end of its peers at 6.6%, and now it will be 5.4%. Even though at least one analyst last week came forward saying he didn’t think a cut would be made, the market shrugged off the news, with NHI shares dropping just 1.26%. Perhaps they should have gone bigger.  Coincident with the dividend announcement, NHI also announced one of its major tenants, Holiday Retirement Corporation, was going to defer $600,000 in monthly rent for May through July. NHI will take that deferred... Read More »
National Health Investors Stabilizing

National Health Investors Stabilizing

National Health Investors (NHI) was the last of the healthcare REITs to report earnings in what was a very informative earnings season. We have already reported that the REITs and their SHOP portfolios have begun the long-anticipated turnaround as occupancy begins to rebound. Operating costs will be another matter, and it will take a few years to return to normal, whatever that is.  NHI’s three major seniors housing tenants have appeared to stabilize, at least from an occupancy perspective. Bickford Senior Living, which has been responsible for the majority of cash rent deferrals during the pandemic, boosted sequential occupancy by 180 basis points in April to 76.3%. That... Read More »
Promising Census Signs From National Health Investors Update

Promising Census Signs From National Health Investors Update

We are still waiting for that first sign that the seniors housing and care recovery has truly begun. There were some encouraging signs from Welltower’s SHOP portfolio when its census started to rise in the later weeks of March. But so far, that is it. Earlier this month, NIC reported that average occupancy at seniors housing communities fell to a new record low in the first quarter, to 78.8% from 80.6% in the fourth quarter.  National Health Investors also recently provided an update regarding its average occupancy and monthly contractual cash collections. Even though the REIT did not report an increase in census at its three major seniors housing operators, the decline has slowed... Read More »
Two REITs Close Couple of Loans

Two REITs Close Couple of Loans

A couple of REITs in good financial shape (and still open to making new investments) announced a couple of loans closed for senior care facilities. CareTrust REIT completed a $15 million secured mezzanine loan for Next Healthcare’s acquisition of a nine-property skilled nursing portfolio with approximately 1,000 beds in Virginia. The loan came with a five-year term and annual interest rate of 12%, with CareTrust funding it from its $600 million unsecured revolving credit facility. White Oak Healthcare Finance was the senior lender on the deal. Then, National Health Investors funded a $22.2 million construction loan for the development of a 110-unit senior living community in Sussex,... Read More »
Senior Care Stocks Stay High After Vaccine News

Senior Care Stocks Stay High After Vaccine News

After Pfizer’s vaccine announcement on November 9, pretty much every publicly traded senior care provider and REIT saw their share prices jump significantly. We believe that much of the exuberance was mainly from the removal of uncertainty surrounding both the vaccine and the election, but as we said earlier this month, it is not like no one thought a vaccine would not be available in the months ahead. And there was still the fact that the Pfizer vaccine needs to go through the FDA approval process, not to mention manufacturing tens of millions of doses, and then distributing them.  But we also wondered if investors had gotten a little ahead of themselves,... Read More »