CHICAGO — The seniors housing industry remains optimistic about acquisitions of existing properties and repositioning of older facilities, according to Capital One’s annual survey of seniors housing and long-term care executives.
Chicago-based Capital One conducted the email survey to capture outlook for the healthcare industry in the year ahead. Respondents included CEOs, CFOs, and other senior executives involved in the seniors housing space. Percentages are based on 119 total responses.
Thirty-six percent of surveyed executives stated that acquisitions presented the most opportunity for growth, with 30 percent naming repositioning as the top option. Development only garnered 14 percent, compared to 24 percent in 2018, suggesting that executives are well aware of overbuilding concerns in the United States.
On other issues, executives overwhelmingly cited labor cost pressure as the top financial concern — 67 percent of respondents ranked it number one. Although this has been the top concern for three years running, executives are actually becoming more concerned. In 2018, only 46 percent of executives named labor as the most pressing concern.
Supply and demand imbalances were the second greatest concern, with 27 percent of respondents citing it as such.
“The industry continues to deal with wage cost pressure as the unemployment rate hovers around 5 percent,” says Chris Taylor, managing director at Capital One Healthcare. “Providing the highest quality of care and service to residents, in the most cost effective manner possible, will continue to be a primary focus for owner-operators in the seniors housing space”