The total value of the investment-grade seniors housing and care property market is estimated at $474.5 billion, assuming an average $210,000 price per unit for seniors housing properties and an average $81,000 price per bed for nursing care properties. That’s according to the latest edition of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care NIC Investment Guide, released this week. The guide provides an overview of the seniors housing and care sector based on year-end 2019 time-series data, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

The guide shares data regarding the approximately 24,500 investment-grade seniors housing and care properties containing 3.1 million units, including average monthly rent by care type. It also discusses senior housing property investment and performance characteristics compared with other types of commercial real estate. In addition, the guide’s authors examine a continuing trend in senior housing and care: increasing need levels of residents on initial move-in across all care segments. As a result, they said, independent living and assisted living operators often care for residents who already have some activities of daily living needs. Further, skilled nursing operators increasingly are serving residents in need of short-term rehabilitation services or those with higher medical care needs who were previously served for a more extended period of time in an acute care hospital, a long-term acute care hospital, or an in-patient rehabilitation facility.

“This edition of the Investment Guide serves as a benchmark to the seniors housing and care sector pre-COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors noted. “A key ingredient in moving the seniors housing and care sector forward is the data that helps support transparency which, in turn, builds trust. Transparency based on good data is good for everyone — residents, families, staff, operators, investors, and policymakers.”

An executive summary of the guide is available for free, and the full guide can be purchased for $50 (PDF) or $100 (printed version). More information is available on NIC’s website.

This article appeared in the McKnight’s Business Daily, a joint effort of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.