Chicago-based real estate investment trust Ventas expects its senior living investments to total $3 billion by the end of 2026, spurred by investor interest in the sector due to demographics, Chairman and CEO Debra Cafaro said Tuesday during a first-quarter earnings call. The amount is an increase from a previous forecast.
The REIT is well on the way to its goal, with $1.7 billion in investments closed so far this year.
“We continue to make additional investments focused on senior housing that should further increase our enterprise growth rate,” Cafaro said in a news release issued in conjunction with the call. “We have increased our 2026 investment volume expectations to $3 billion, reflecting our strong market momentum, clear competitive advantages and large, active pipeline of senior housing investment opportunities.”
Ventas is expecting to post a fifth consecutive year of double-digit annual growth in its senior housing operating portfolio in 2026. Cafaro said that during that time, the firm has been seizing on the “unprecedented opportunity” of demand for senior housing from a growing aging population by increasing its stake in the sector. The firm has maintained a position as the second-largest owner of senior living communities on the American Seniors Housing association’s ASHA 50 list.
“As a result of our strategy and execution, we have already grown senior housing to over 60% of our business, and our communities now serve nearly 100,000 residents,” she said, adding that the REIT is building on its ‘1-2-3’ strategy — deliver profitable organic growth, capture value-creating external growth and drive strong execution and cash flow generation in its senior housing portfolio — adopted in 2023 to focus on growing its SHOP organically and externally.
Year-to-date, the firm’s $1.7 billion in US senior living investments encompass 44 communities across 15 states. External growth has added more than 25% additional units in SHOP since the fourth quarter of 2024. With US SHOP communities its No. 1 capital allocation priority, Ventas said it has closed on $6 billion in senior living investments since 2024.
“We continue to make additional investments focused on senior housing that should further increase our enterprise growth rate,” she said in a news release. “We have increased our 2026 investment volume expectations to $3 billion, reflecting our strong market momentum, clear competitive advantages and large, active pipeline of senior housing investment opportunities.”
In the first quarter, SHOP same-store net operating income increased more than15% year over year, driven by a combination of occupancy growth, pricing strength and operating leverage powered by the Ventas OI data analytics platform, according to Justin Hutchens, chief investment officer and executive vice president of senior housing.
Same-store average occupancy overall increased 310 basis points year over year, reaching 90.4%. Same-store occupancy in Ventas’ US SHOP increased 370 basis points year over year, with average occupancy of 87%.
Hutchens said that the REIT is focusing on community-level initiatives, including refresh projects, price-volume optimization guidance and sales culture improvement. Ventas also is implementing unit-level sales strategies supported by “boots-on-the-ground” site visits and working collaboratively with operators to improve occupancy and pricing, he said.
