This research is abstracted from the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Healthcare.
Seniors housing is a multifaceted property type in commercial real estate, in part, because it is comprised of several different housing and care products designed to meet the diverse needs and desires of the older consumer. Product segments range from independent living, which focuses on hospitality and lifestyle services for healthy, active seniors, to assisted living for residents who are not fully independent and need help with daily activities, to memory support and nursing care units, which provide residents round-the-clock licensed, supervised medical care. Any of these product segments may be found as a stand-alone building, and they are frequently combined in one or two buildings or clusters of buildings to form a campus of continuing care.
So how have seniors housing and care segments performed since the recent market cycle peak? While all segments saw declines in occupancy from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2018 due to inventory growth outpacing absorption, the independent living segment performed the best in terms of occupancy and average annualized asking rent growth. The memory care segment had the weakest comparative performance, overall, with the strongest change in inventory, which put pressure on the segment’s occupancy rates and rent growth.
The independent living segment had comparatively moderate inventory growth (5.7%), and largely sustained occupancy growth (-0.3 percentage points, from 91.0% to 90.7%), which allowed average annualized asking rent rates to rise faster than at the other segments during the period (3.2%). Independent living also had a significantly higher level of occupancy at 90.7% in the second quarter of 2018 than did the other segment types.
The memory care segment had the highest inventory growth (33.6%), the largest decline in occupancy (-5.1 percentage points, from 87.8% to 82.7%), and the lowest average annualized asking rent growth for the period (2.5%). It is worth noting, however, that the inventory base of memory care is relatively small, which can partially explain the large inventory growth rate of 33.6%. Compared with the other segments, memory care had the lowest overall occupancy rate in the second quarter of 2018 (82.7%), falling to its lowest level since NIC MAP began reporting the data in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The assisted living segment experienced higher inventory growth than independent living but lower inventory growth than memory care (11.5%). Occupancy declined 3.5 percentage points (from 90.2% to 86.7%) for the segment (also falling to its lowest level in the time series), but average annualized asking rent growth for the period (3.1%) was similar to independent living.
The nursing care segment had the weakest inventory growth (-0.4%), a 2.0 percentage point decline in occupancy, and an average annualized asking rent growth rate of 2.7% for the period.
These findings are consistent with our market observations.