Funding agency Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is offloading a portfolio of 90 senior dwelling communities, typically for deep reductions in comparison with buy worth, in accordance with a brand new story from the Wall Road Journal.
Blackstone has not too long ago sought to promote its 9,000-unit senior dwelling portfolio in a sequence of one-off transactions, in accordance with the story, revealed Nov. 6. A number of the firm’s communities have modified arms for reductions as little as 70% in comparison with authentic buy worth.
For instance, a group in Greenville, South Carolina, that Blackstone purchased for about $20 million in 2017 not too long ago modified arms for a reduction of 60% under that buy worth. The corporate additionally bought communities close to Denver in Chicago and in South Florida for reductions as a lot as 70% under buy.
A Wall Road Journal evaluation discovered that Blackstone acquired 39 senior housing properties for greater than $755 million between 2022 and 2025 and later bought those self same properties for about $536 million, representing a 29% low cost over the unique buy worth. The publication famous that Blackstone bought a further 5 properties “for lower than the loans that had been taken out on them.”
In an announcement to Senior Housing Information, a consultant for Blackstone mentioned that the properties existed as a part of a $33.5 billion fund “that has almost doubled buyers’ capital” however had been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Blackstone consultant famous the agency has spent greater than $100 million on the portfolio in enhancements and operational investments that, in accordance with the Wall Road Journal, included new home equipment, new eating areas and work to different public areas.
Blackstone shouldn’t be the one firm that has struggled to promote properties for a sum near the price it took to construct or purchase them. For instance, Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra advised SHN earlier this yr that he handed on shopping for a portfolio of communities priced at $600,000 per unit in 2019 solely to purchase 20 of the perfect belongings from the portfolio “at 50 cents on the greenback” years later.
Smaller offers are buoying senior dwelling funding plans in 2025 as improvement stays powerful to realize at favorable prices. Senior dwelling dealmaking reached “new heights” with a record- breaking 733 publicly introduced offers between Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2025.
Blackstone upsized its senior dwelling holdings within the years earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic. The corporate purchased a 64-property portfolio of communities managed by Brookdale Senior Dwelling (NYSE: BKD) in 2016 for greater than $1 billion. In 2017, Welltower bought Blackstone a 26-property portfolio managed by operator Senior Way of life for $745 million.
In keeping with the Wall Road Journal, a lot of Blackstone’s senior housing portfolio was composed of communities that carried middle-market rental charges of between $3,500 and $6,000 per 30 days.
Senior dwelling business situations rapidly deteriorated in 2020 with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as occupancy charges fell at communities throughout the nation. For instance, occupancy at Blackstone’s Greenville group dipped to 41%, down from about 80% in 2017. State information reviewed by Wall Road Journal confirmed that regulators cited deficiencies at greater than a dozen senior dwelling communities Blackstone owns.
In recent times Blackstone had swapped out sure operators for smaller ones with regional footprints, mirroring a method taken by different homeowners of senior dwelling communities. However “in 2022, Blackstone determined to unwind its ill-timed senior-housing wager.”
“Blackstone has absorbed a pricey reminder that senior housing is among the many most unforgiving corners of business actual property,” the Wall Road Journal story learn.
