Slowing Transaction Activity in Seniors Housing: A Pause or New Normal?
October 24, 2016 | Beth Burnham Mace | National Real Estate Investor
Since peaking at more than $8.7 billion in the middle of 2015, the quarterly pace of acquisitions and dispositions in the seniors housing and care sector has been slowing. At the same time, the mix of buyers has shifted, prices have moved and the cost and availability of debt and equity have changed.
The question now is if the slowdown in transactions activity will be a continuing trend or merely a temporary pause in the market. This commentary will provide a few considerations to think about in answering that question.
The facts
Acquisitions of seniors housing and care properties totaled $2.0 billion in the third quarter of 2016, the slowest pace since mid-2013 and less than a quarter of the recent peak pace seen in 2015. According to preliminary tallies of transactions activity for the third quarter of 2016 collected by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) and NIC, a total of 187 properties exchanged hands.
