Demand for medical office buildings is being fueled in large part by the continued expansion of outpatient and ambulatory care, increasing the need for surgery centers, urgent care facilities, and specialty clinics.
The current healthcare real estate development market is a bit of an enigma.
The GlobeSt Healthcare conference developer panel discussion included (from left to right): Sean Miller of Anchor Health Properties, Jaime Northam of Ryan Cos. US Inc., Sharon Harper of The Plaza Companies, Jake Dinnen of based PMB and Malcolm Sina of Sina Companies. Not pictured: Moderator Murray W. Wolf of HREI™. (PHOTO CREDIT: HREI)
But panelists at a recent GlobeSt Healthcare conference developer panel discussion say they are staying busy despite a challenging environment
The number of medical office building projects under construction remained somewhat steady from 2022 and into 2023. Yet the total square footage started nationwide during a 12-month period from the third quarter (Q3) of 2022 to Q3 2023, fell 41.6 percent. In Q3 2022, 23.3 million square feet of space was started, while Q3 2023 saw that drop to 13.8 million square feet.
Murray W. Wolf, the publisher and founding editor of Healthcare Real Estate Insights, presented these stats compiled by Arnold, Md.-based Revista, an HRE research firm, during a panel discussion focused on development at the ALM/GlobeSt. Healthcare conference on Dec. 12 at the Andaz Scottsdale Resort. Mr. Wolf served as the moderator of the session titled, “Through the Lens of Developers: Reimaging Healthcare CRE.”
Although HRE project starts were down in late 2023 versus 2022, Mr. Wolf pointed out that the number of projects under construction nationwide as of the end of Q3.
Source: HREI
At a time when U.S. and international headlines have been full of bad news, there seems to be nothing but good news to report about the healthcare real estate (HRE) space.
To start with, medical office building (MOB) sales in 2021 – despite the lingering of the COVID-19 pandemic – broke the all-time record for volume at $17.4 billion, topping the previous record of $15.4 billion set in 2015.
In addition, occupancy rates increased significantly last year, absorption of MOB space is as strong as ever, MOB construction starts are on the rise, and third-party owned MOB projects made up a larger share of projects than any of the previous seven years.
This data and more was presented during a session at last week’s Revista Medical Real Estate Investment Forum 2022, which was held at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort from March 2-4. The annual event is put on by Arnold, Md.-based Revista, which gathers a wide range of HRE data for its subscribers.
Kicking off the agenda on the second day of the conference, March 3, Revista Principals Mike Hargrave and Hilda Martin provided the audience with a wide variety of data from 2021 during a session titled “Medical Real Estate Trends & Top Markets.”
Source: HREI
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