NEW CANAAN, CONN. (PRWEB) JANUARY 12, 2022 – The number of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2021 rose to 129 deals, based on new acquisition data from LevinPro LTC. This represents an 18% increase from the 109 transactions in the previous quarter but is just 1.6% higher than the 127 deals made public in the fourth quarter of 2020. The quarter’s M&A activity represents a record high deal total for any quarter. The $3.6 billion spent on the fourth quarter transactions, based on disclosed prices, dropped by 32% from the previous quarter’s total of $5.3 billion.
“Despite the challenges stemming from staffing shortages, vaccine mandates and persistently low census across the country, investor interest peaked in the senior care M&A market in the fourth quarter,” stated Ben Swett, Editor of The SeniorCare Investor. “In addition, based on what we have heard from active brokers, lenders and investors, December’s transaction total appears to be much larger than the publicly-disclosed figure.”
There were 102 seniors housing transactions involving nearly 19,401 units, with 26 skilled nursing deals combining for around 8,772 beds. There was also one transaction that featured a combination of eight rental CCRCs and six entrance fee CCRCs totaling around 3,637 beds and units. That was Welltower’s acquisition of The Fountains Portfolio, which was formerly owned by NorthStar Healthcare Income, Inc. This deal included both the highest total bed count and dollar volume of the quarter.
In terms of seniors housing deals, assisted living once again attracted the most attention, accounting for 56% of the announced seniors housing deals in the quarter. Active adult deals took a 19% share of the quarter’s activity, followed by independent living at 13%. Affordable senior apartment and CCRC deals took 9% and 4% of the deal activity, respectively.
“The skilled nursing market still faces major problems, not helped by some unfair media attention,” added Swett, “but there are a multitude of buyers in search of yield willing to invest in SNFs that have pushed bids higher and higher.”
All long-term care M&A deals dating back to 1993 can be accessed on the LevinPro database and can be purchased via a site license. All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of health care, which is part of HealthCareMandA.com. In addition, annual results of the seniors housing and care acquisition markets will be published this year in the 27th Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report, to be published in March 2022. The comprehensive report has more than 50 pages of valuation statistics, graphs, charts and analysis. For information, or to order the reports, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates was established in 1948 and has offices in New Canaan, Connecticut, and North Bethesda, Maryland. The company publishes research reports and newsletters and maintains databases on the healthcare and seniors housing M&A markets.
