Outcomes matter.
Reviewing among the prime quotes from Senior Housing Information tales of 2025, this emerges as a key theme. Many leaders within the sector emphasised this message, whether or not speaking about adopting new applied sciences like AI, new working or pricing fashions, or pursuing different improvements meant to extra successfully serve the incoming technology of shoppers.
They stated that whereas innovation is of essential significance, success should be judged by how nicely adjustments drive measurable enhancements in the important thing metrics underlying a wholesome senior dwelling enterprise, together with internet working revenue (NOI).
Because the 12 months winds down, the excerpts under underscore the progress the sector made within the final 12 months as organizations carry daring ambitions into 2026.
“The silver tsunami is right here. All it’s important to do is take a look at lively grownup. Now it’s time for the assisted dwelling and reminiscence care phase to learn from that very same silver tsunami and the entrance fringe of the wave is subsequent 12 months as child boomers flip 80.” — Brookdale Senior Dwelling CEO Nick Stengle
Stengle was named CEO of the nation’s largest senior dwelling operator in October, and has since been on a journey to place Brookdale to be able to seize incoming demand. In 2025, Brookdale carved its holdings into six areas, every with a single chief overseeing all operations, supported by gross sales, medical, human sources, recruiting, eating and asset administration leaders.
The Brentwood, Tennessee-based senior dwelling supplier can be within the technique of trimming its footprint of senior dwelling properties to 550 communities whereas growing its possession stake in communities in comparison with the previous.
Whereas senior dwelling operators proceed to make occupancy and margin enhancements in 2025, extra leaders within the business are talking out about incoming demand. And that demand is already being felt throughout communities nationwide.
As Stengle identified, a lot of the demand story has to this point performed out in lifestyle-driven sectors like lively grownup and impartial dwelling; one story to maintain shut watch on in 2026 is the extent to which the demand wave is extra pronounced for operators like Brookdale, which has targeted its technique on greater acuity ranges.
“Able to develop, struggling to construct.” — Nationwide Funding Heart for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Senior Principal Omar Zahraoui.
The senior dwelling business has skilled 4 consecutive years of demand outpacing the speed of recent development. Whereas that has pushed common business occupancy nearer to 90% heading into 2026, improvement exercise stays close to or at report lows. NIC information exhibits that for each 10 new models that open in any given market, 31 models are absorbed.
Taken in complete, the dearth of recent development may put the business in a troublesome place, notably provided that the older buildings presently making up a lot of the senior dwelling inventory won’t attraction to the incoming wave of potential new residents. Capital suppliers seem to nonetheless be largely ready on the sidelines to make new improvement occur. However regardless of the dearth of recent development throughout the board, operators have taken extra measured approaches to redevelopment, enterprise repositionings or renovations to improve getting old properties.
One factor is evident: With demand persevering with to rise, the business should get shovels within the floor sooner relatively than later, or danger lacking out on the lion’s share of the boomer demographic.
“When you assume you’re getting the demographic wave with out understanding what the business is, you’re doing each your capital suppliers and working companions a disservice.” – Atria Senior Dwelling CEO Holly Belter-Chesser
The sector has touted demographic shifts as drivers of the sturdy demand for senior dwelling, however suppliers should adapt working fashions to handle better medical complexity whereas mixing hospitality and way of life components to satisfy the expectations of an impartial, choice-driven boomer cohort.
Succeeding in these areas is simpler stated than executed as a consequence of rising acuity, adjustments in size of keep and the way in which older adults search out senior dwelling choices on-line. To this finish, gross sales and advertising and marketing departments are shifting ways to leverage social media, AI-search capabilities and on-line sources to permit for prospect training and price transparency.
To Belter-Chesser’s level, such adjustments are vital but additionally should be undertaken in a complicated means with the intention to drive outcomes – not simply within the type of rising occupancy however in stronger bottom-line numbers.
“We don’t want change for change’s sake, we’d like change that drives NOI that drives outcomes,” she stated.
“In stronger markets, you’ve got extra leeway, however finally, delivering high quality care is what separates a mediocre and even failing property from a very profitable one. That is the brand new actuality, welcome to the long run.” — Pegasus Senior Dwelling CEO Chris Hollister
Hollister made these feedback after a current information evaluation by the American Well being Care Affiliation and the Nationwide Heart for Assisted Dwelling (AHCA/NCAL) discovered that almost all assisted dwelling residents are over age 85 and that 4 in 10 residents stay with some extent of dementia or cognitive decline, with common lengths of keep ranging between 22 months and 28 months.
Senior dwelling corporations have modified their ranges of care programs whereas additionally growing the frequency of resident well being assessments to raised place residents. Pegasus Senior Dwelling has revamped its degree of care system in AL and reminiscence care by adopting a brand new digital well being report, growing assessments and enhancing the menu of care choices accessible to residents.
And Pegasus is hardly alone in such initiatives. As acuity rises, success relies not solely on delivering high-quality care however on precisely charging for it.
“It is advisable have that fine-tuned, as a result of at a sure level, in the event you’re absolutely occupied however solely elevating hire by 5% annually and never adjusting care ranges usually sufficient, your NOI can’t improve rapidly particularly as labor prices rise,” Well being Dimensions Group CEO Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey stated.
It’s a degree that 12 Oaks Senior Dwelling President Greg Puklicz echoed. 12 Oaks has adopted a extra refined means of defining ranges of care and assigning factors to them, resulting in a 13.2% improve in degree of care prices as of August 2025, in comparison with 2024.
“If we are able to’t streamline this and make it simpler and smoother for our residents, they’ll discover somebody who can, and so they simply gained’t come to us.” — Ascension Dwelling CEO Erin Shadbolt
The senior dwelling business should assume in a different way about its enterprise mannequin and make companies extra accessible for the incoming technology as aging-in-place choices develop into extra possible and inexpensive.
Affordability stays a significant component stopping the business from enhancing its penetration price, presently between 10% and 12%, in accordance with NIC information. In the meantime, instruments like house well being companies, telehealth, treatment supply companies and different medical choices develop into extra accessible.
One of many largest senior housing operators by unit rely, Retirement Housing Basis, introduced earlier this 12 months that the corporate reduce ties with its market-rate portfolio and can focus solely on inexpensive senior housing companies and improvement.
This 12 months additionally noticed senior dwelling operators plan development that embody growth of home-based companies to increase the attain of their manufacturers past the partitions of their communities.
“One main problem is slicing by the noise. A cultured demo or buzzwords like ‘AI-driven’ aren’t sufficient, we have to present how the expertise truly matches into real-world senior dwelling operations.” — New Perspective Senior Dwelling Co-CEO Chris Hyatt
This 12 months noticed senior dwelling operators make some robust choices on their expertise partnerships as they search new capabilities.
Many operators already rely on a number of platforms to handle capabilities similar to buyer relationship administration (CRM), digital well being data and point-of-sale programs. More and more, senior dwelling corporations are in search of information that’s moveable, simple to interpret and capable of “discuss” throughout the assorted programs.
Senior dwelling suppliers are additionally cautiously exploring the usage of AI. They’re searching for to enhance workflow for employees and determine new methods to enhance resident satisfaction, fall detection, ambient monitoring or utilizing AI to craft summaries for households that maintain promise.
However a recurring theme among the many prime quotes of the 12 months is that operators should be disciplined and results-oriented whereas pursuing innovation. And with regard to tech, which means intently tying options to precise operational practices.
“Don’t let the software program outline your wants,” Juniper Communities CEO Lynne Katzmann stated. “Discover a software program that works on your operations or to maneuver your operations ahead.”
“We’re at a time limit within the development of the business the place issues are accelerating, and so to have the ability to scale up and tackle further alternatives early within the cycle we expect is a extremely vital side to it.” — Sonida Senior Dwelling CEO Brandon Ribar
The senior dwelling business noticed many situations of speedy and expansive development in 2025.
In February Apollo (NYSE: APO) agreed to accumulate Bridge Funding Group, which owns 62 senior dwelling communities as half of a bigger actual property portfolio, in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $1.5 billion. Per week earlier, Barings introduced it’s buying Artemis Actual Property Companions, a longtime senior housing investor with $11 billion in actual property belongings below administration in 2024.
In September LCS, one of many largest senior dwelling operators within the nation, entered right into a strategic merger settlement with Vi, an operator with a observe report of working luxurious life plan properties. In November, Sonida Senior Dwelling (NYSE: SNDA) introduced plans for a merger with CNL Healthcare Properties as a part of a $1.8 billion deal that might create the eighth largest senior dwelling possession group by unit rely, if authorised. Earlier this month, Trilogy Well being Companies introduced the acquisition of Kingston HealthCare, including the corporate’s 14 senior dwelling communities to Trilogy’s 130- senior dwelling property portfolio.
The tempo of senior dwelling transactions has additionally elevated this 12 months as possession teams intention to make use of dry powder to comb up high-performing belongings. As of October, Welltower (NYSE: WELL) introduced $14 billion in senior housing acquisitions to accumulate greater than 700 communities this 12 months. For the reason that center of final 12 months, Ventas (NYSE: VTR) has accomplished $4.1 billion in senior housing investments, as senior housing now accounts for half of the Chicago-based REIT’s internet working revenue (NOI). This comes as Ventas goals for “extra aggressive development” heading into 2026.
Taken collectively, these strikes underscore CEO Brandon Ribar’s commentary that the business is coming into an accelerated section of development, one during which scale and velocity have gotten decisive benefits.
“It’s now not about these key phrase methods. It’s about offering the perfect info for the fashions to prioritize my reply as most salient and reliable, and offering that to the households after they’re looking.” — A Place For Mother CEO Tatyana Zlotsky
In 2025, APFM shifted its focus from search-first strategy in rating key phrases and pivoted to solutions exhibiting up from AI instruments like ChatGPT or Gemini. That is vital as a consequence of declining click-through conduct by shoppers utilizing search, particularly as AI summaries develop into extra widespread.
Looking forward to 2026, operators should proceed to go “past the hype” of AI. Suppliers ought to plan for households persevering with to make use of AI instruments when wanting up info on senior dwelling communities of their native or regional markets.
Which means operators ought to create clear descriptions of their care ranges and companies offered and supply first-hand tales and testimonials on-line which are simply accessible. That is in an effort to make operator content material extra accessible for shoppers counting on AI instruments relatively than typical on-line search capabilities.
“In my function now, I would like to have the ability to assist our EDs and provides them time to spend with their residents. You possibly can’t assist anyone or develop a extremely good plan till you truly know what the wants are.” — Concord Senior Companies CEO Traci Taylor-Roberts
The senior dwelling business noticed sweeping management adjustments throughout organizations of various sizes, with some organizations adopting co-leadership fashions whereas others employed seasoned senior dwelling veterans with a long time of operational expertise to tell their C-suite roles.
Main operators together with Brookdale, Maplewood Senior Dwelling and Watermark Senior Dwelling named new CEOs or co-CEOs, and mid-size operators additionally shuffled leaders to usher within the subsequent technology. Civitas Senior Dwelling named longtime president Cooper Vittitow as CEO. Concord Senior Companies named Roberts as CEO after a long time of expertise with various operators.
A number of of those new CEOs appear to exemplify a “player-coach” – that’s, somebody who has been on the entrance strains and brings a powerful operational sensibility whereas additionally possessing strategic and management chops. Taylor-Roberts is one instance, as she has held all kinds of roles whereas rising by the ranks, together with govt director in addition to gross sales and regional positions.
Her quote highlights how her first-hand information of what it takes to guide a group as an ED is informing her priorities as chief govt.
Incoming C-suite leaders are taking their positions at a vital juncture for the business, with demand surging, transformational AI expertise booming and the event standstill posing probably extreme entry challenges. No matter their backgrounds, their success will rely on with the ability to rally their locker rooms and their entrance workplaces – that’s, be a revered chief for everybody working on the group degree in addition to the executive and administration ranges of organizations.
