What I posted about the financing being hard to find for senior housing, is doubly true for assisted living, at least from any bank that has even half a clue.
These things were way, way, way overbuilt during the past few years. Banks in a lot of areas (not so bad around our area, but Atlanta was one I know of) were literally handing out money to anyone who walked through the door and said the words “assisted living”. The problem was that most of these guys were your typical developers who knew nothing about taking care of old people, and did a pretty bad job of it, and also vastly underestimated their operating expenses. So now all these facilities are half-empty, since no one wants to put their Mom in a place run by some idiots, and are facing foreclosure. Even the well-capitalized firms in the industry, like Marriott and Sunrise Assisted Living, have been hit really hard.
I expect it will be several more years before we see a resurgence in development of assisted living.
On a similar note - anyone have experience with assisted living for seniors? Sort of like a rooming house / apartment combination where you have a live-in caretaker and have medical staff come in periodically, but the tenants re essentially self-sufficient on most day-to-day operations? The caretaker is usually responsible for fixing group meals, laundry, etc.
I’ve heard of some large houses being divided into four or five such “apartments” (without kitchens), and have been told that one can make over $2k/month for each resident. I don’t have the patience for it myself, but it sounds like a money maker.
I can tell you that the market for FINANCING senior housing right now is absolutely horrible. No one is lending because the sector was way overbuilt during the 1997-1999 period and now all the lenders are skeptical.
If you are planning to get into senior housing development now, you had better have a boatload of cash and probably a track record as well.