As Justin Hutchens, executive vice president, senior housing and chief investment officer has said before, Ventas (NYSE: VTR) is standing at the cusp of a long senior living demand runway. So far, the company is off to a “good start” amid an active summer leasing season.
Gains in the company’s senior housing operating portfolio helped the Chicago-based real estate investment trust (REIT) grow its normalized funds from operations (FFO) per share to $0.87 in the second quarter of 2025, a 9% gain compared to the company’s FFO per share of $0.80 in the same period in 2024.
Current tailwinds in demand, the positioning of its platform and the strength of its operators prompted Ventas to increase its full-year guidance for normalized FFO per share $3.44, a gain over the $3.41 per share FFO guidance the REIT provided in May.
Hutchens told Senior Housing News Thursday he sees a “window of opportunity” ahead for the REIT given strong occupancy and unit absorption coupled with a lack of newly built communities and millions of older adults poised to enter the industry in the years ahead.
Hutchens said he believes Ventas is in “one of the best positions to grow our platform externally,” especially as it continues to support operators through its proprietary business intelligence platform, Ventas OI.
The company also upped its investment volume guidance for 2025 to $2 billion, up from $1.5 billion earlier this year. So far this year, Ventas has closed deals worth $1.1 billion of that total.
“We’ve committed to deploy billions of dollars into the senior housing sector and to expand our footprint,” Hutchens said.
The REIT continues to grow its base of senior living operators, having grown from 10 operators in 2020 to 36 in 2025.
Ventas has 1,386 properties overall, with 691 in its SHOP segment and 257 in its triple-net segment. Ventas stock rose 1.05% on Thursday to rest at $67.18 at market close.
‘Significant growth’ ahead
Hutchens highlighted the Ventas Operational Insights (OI) data platform and its ability to help operators lock in rates that will both attract new residents and boost revenue per occupied room (RevPOR) growth.
The company’s analytics capabilities help operators maximize occupancy and “adjusting rates” in a way that doesn’t dissuade move-ins. Ventas calls it “price volume optimization.”
“We’re trying to pull both levers, we want to see occupancy and rate grow, and we’ve made the best connection recently of both moving those together,” Hutchens said.
The company’s SHOP segment posted same-store cash operating revenue of nearly $796 million, representing a gain of more than 8% over the same period in 2024, when the segment’s cash operating revenue was about $735 million. Ventas reported cash NOI of 28.4% for the segment, representing a gain of 130 basis points versus 2Q24, when the segment’s cash NOI was 27.1%, according to the company’s financial disclosures.
Ventas’ SHOP segment occupancy grew to 87.6% in the second quarter of 2025, representing a 240 basis point increase compared to the same time last year.
Ventas is continuing to tweak its SHOP segment to maximize performance as it seeks to boost the portfolio to generate half or more of its NOI this year. The company plans to convert 45 Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) from triple-net lease agreements to the segment. The communities are 78% occupied in “really strong markets” and have potential to push NOI “upward of $100 million,” Hutchens noted.
The company has long taken a “right market, right asset, right operator” strategy to the makeup of its senior housing portfolio. To that end, the company believes it has a net absorption opportunity of about 1,000 basis points over the next few years and potential net demand opportunity of 1,500 basis points.
Given the company’s financial strength and flexibility, Hutchens said Ventas is “poised to grow.”
“We’ll see significant growth in our target demographic for the next 15 years or so and it’s a long runway of demand and a platform that’s really designed to be competitive in the senior housing business,” Hutchens said.
The OI platform supports Ventas senior living operators in giving price guidance as the company aims to further improve its pricing strategy and drive move-in volume. To remain competitive in a market where little new development is occurring, Hutchens pointed to Ventas’ effort to conduct over “300 refreshes” and capital investments into existing properties since 2023.
“We are helping to bring a more sharpened focus on where there’s opportunity to improve and all of our operators are participating,” Hutchens said.
Hutchens said there’s an opportunity to push rates higher in senior living and improve occupancy as the number of newly opened communities remains limited.
“It’s literally one community at a time and every community has its own price strategy depending on the dynamics involved with a local site,” Hutchens told SHN.
Move-in momentum builds in 2025
Move-in activity and census growth were “particularly strong” in June with “one of the best months we’ve had in a number of years,” Hutchens said. The REIT’s SHOP operators improved average occupancy by 60 basis points from May to June as July is “off to a good start.”
“We would expect it to be sequentially as good or better in the month of July so it’s good continued momentum, strong tour and move-in activity and the key selling season is off to a good start,” Hutchens added.
Last December, Brookdale agreed to continue to lease 65 of the 120 communities it had with Ventas, with the REIT transitioning the remaining communities to other operators.
Among those operators is Discovery Senior Living, which is poised to operate about 80 communities the REIT owns by the end of this year.
“We’re really excited to get more communities in their hands because they’ve delivered outsized results for us,” Hutchens said.
Ventas continues “tinkering” with 5% to 10% of the current portfolio through management transitions to improve results.
“It’s part of the strategy we have for the right market, right asset, right operator—get the right operators in place in the right communities. And we saw an opportunity, so we took it,” Hutchens said.
Ventas has so far this year closed $1.1 billion of its expected $ billion total. On that front, dealmaking momentum is picking up as Ventas seeks to acquire “high-performing communities in “well-positioned in markets with strong tailwinds.”
“There’s momentum in the investment activity, there’s also more available in the market, so we’re using the strength of our platform to maximize that opportunity,” Hutchens said.
Hutchens highlighted a group of 26 independent living communities that were transitioned to three different operators in late 2023 as exemplifying the fruits of the company’s labor. Today, these communities are 84% occupied and with occupancy growth 890 basis points higher compared to 2024.
Ventas’ Holiday by Atria portfolio gained 110 basis points of occupancy in the second quarter compared to the first.
