WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), in partnership with Seniors Housing Business, has released the 2023 edition of the ASHA 50, which ranks the 50 largest owners and operators in the U.S. seniors housing space.
Based in Washington, D.C., ASHA is a trade association that advocates for and represents companies that develop, own, operate and finance seniors housing. The ASHA 50 rankings are based on self-reported portfolio sizes, ranked by total number of units, as of June 1, 2023. Data was also used from other reliable sources, such as public filings.
The 2023 list showed what many have already heard anecdotally: It was a slow year for transactions. The top five owners — Welltower, Ventas, Brookdale Senior Living, Diversified Healthcare Trust and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital — all held their places from 2022.
It’s worth noting, though, that the top two owners were net buyers since the 2022 list. Welltower’s portfolio grew from 903 properties and 90,178 units in 2022 to 943 properties and 95,281 units in 2023. Ventas grew from 720 properties and 66,208 units to 737 properties and 67,679 units. The next three top owners, though, were virtually unchanged from the 2022 list to the 2023 list.
On the operator side, there was a similar lack of change. After the big shake-up in 2021 where the seventh-largest operator of seniors housing in the United States (Atria Senior Living) acquired the third-largest (Holiday Retirement), Atria remains No. 2 on the list behind longtime operational giant Brookdale.
LCS and Sunrise Senior Living held their spots at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively. The only change to the top five operators was Discovery Senior Living supplanting Erickson in the No. 5 slot. Although Erickson actually grew over the last year — from 20 properties and 24,642 units in 2022 to 21 properties and 25,268 units in 2023 — Discovery grew faster. The operator went from 110 properties totaling 14,842 units in 2022 to 211 properties totaling 25,876 units in 2023.
To read the digital edition of the ASHA 50, click here.
— Jeff Shaw