Welltower Inc. (WELL) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Welltower Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew McQueen, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. As a reminder, certain statements made during this call may be deemed forward-looking statements in the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Although Welltower believes any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the company can give no assurances that its projected results will be attained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in the company's filings with the SEC. And with that, I will hand the call over to Shankh for his remarks.

Thank you, Matthew, and good morning, everyone. I will review business trends and our capital allocation priorities. And the team will follow the usual cadence. Our business continued to fire on all cylinders during the third quarter as the all weather compounding engine we have built continues to deliver exceptional results for our existing investors. The strong end market demand for our luxury senior living product coupled with attractive capital deployment opportunities drove revenue 38% and adjusted EBITDA 35%. Most notably, we delivered nearly 25% FFO per share growth while maintaining extremely low leverage balance sheet and doubling down on our investments in operations and technology. These results, coupled with momentum that we are carrying into the fourth quarter, enabled us to raise the midpoint of our full year FFO outlook by 10¢ per share to $6.50 which if achieved, would represent a 23% year over year growth. What matters to us, however, is not simply the magnitude of the growth in a given quarter or year. But the duration of that growth. We believe that favorable demand-supply backdrop when combined more importantly, with an affluent customer base and the digital transformation of our portfolio through Welltower Business System gives us a long runway to compound our share earnings and cash flow growth for existing investors. To be clear, our recent results and outlook are not simply a byproduct of demographic trends, or the expansion of our footprint. Instead, they are a function of our long held view that enduring businesses simply cannot respond to change. They must continue to invent themselves ahead of it. In that vein, we have retooled nearly every aspect of the company over the past decade. From capital allocation to improving the resident and employee experience, in addition to meaningfully deleveraging our balance sheet. These actions have positioned us not to simply withstand an increasingly uncertain economic landscape but to remain on offense and continue to deliver outsized growth almost irrespective of macro conditions. Turning back to the quarter, our total portfolio same store net operating income increased 16%. Second highest level of growth achieved in our recorded history. This is largely a function of mix shift of our portfolio we have discussed previously, as our seniors housing portfolio. Operating portfolio or SHOP now represents 70% of total same store NOI. And our shop performance remained strong delivering 9.1% organic revenue growth driven by another period of both healthy occupancy gains and robust pricing power. Against a backdrop of growing macro uncertainty, the demand for luxury senior living remained resilient, during the summer months, with a 120 basis points of average occupancy increase from second quarter. This gain exceeded the sequential occupancy increase recorded during the same period last year. Reflecting the uncorrelated demand for our product offering. And while it is still early, we are encouraged by the trends we are seeing through the start of the fourth quarter. Unless the strong sequential tailwind we experienced in Q2 and Q3 subside, we should be in a position to deliver another year of favorable occupancy growth next year. However, as communities are filling up, the deliberate and methodical handover from occupancy to pricing as the driver of revenue growth is taking place under the surface. Our all in measure of pricing or RevPOR, or unit revenue, increased by 5.3% during the period. Highlighting the strong pricing power maintained by our operators. If we zoom into the U.S., occupancy crossed 90%, the portfolio achieved RevPAR growth of 5.5%. If you further zoom into a traditional senior living business, the same number was 5.8%. Though quarterly numbers are irrelevant, as we are focused on long term, the underlying trend perhaps provides a peek into the future which is inherently uncertain. Taking a first principle approach, it makes fundamental sense that rates should continue to move higher as capacity in the system grows increasingly scarce. But more importantly, our operator's pricing power reflects a luxury product in premium locations coupled with strong value proposition of the service that our operating partners provide to residents and their families. On the expense side, cost growth across our senior housing portfolio remained well contained even amongst the broader inflationary pressure. Expenses in SHOP grew 4.3% or below 1% on an ExpPOR basis due to operating leverage in our high fixed cost business alongside hourly wins from Welltower Business System. The favorable spread between RevPOR and ExpPOR growth persisted during the third quarter driving another period of outsized margin expansion of 300 basis points. Going forward, we continue to see sustained opportunity for margin expansion as this delta is expected to remain wide while WBS initiatives continue to bear fruit. As John will describe momentarily, the flow through margin of our shop business reached a record high of 66%. Resulting in more cash flow dropping to the bottom line for each incremental revenue. When assessing the future earnings path of this platform, this relationship is important to consider along with the pricing versus occupancy dynamic. mentioned above. From a capital allocation standpoint, there was no let up in activity across US, UK, and Canada. After a record setting year of capital deployment in 2025, we have completed or announced over $21 billion of investment activity. Year to date. Similar to last year, got lucky again with unprecedented interest rate and macro volatility this year which drove this significant opportunity set. It did not hurt that we are prepared with both an underlevered balance sheet and the most pristine reputation in this business as an entrepreneurial shop which operates at lightning speed and the highest level of transaction integrity. $21 billion could very well be the size of a large cap REIT. But the total acquisition volume is the least relevant measure of what we have accomplished. Instead of large scale M&A, which we shun like the plague, we completed 196 granular transactions with a median size of $35.5 million in 204 business days. More importantly, please see Page 9 of our business update for the number of transaction we rejected owing to issues concerning price, location, product market fit, management contract, or other issues. Nonetheless, as Nikhil will describe shortly, our pipeline opportunities remain robust, visible, and actionable across our regions. As we have discussed previously, the vast majority of our acquisitions are granular, off market opportunities with a clear path of driving meaningfully higher cash flow post closing. Say differently, we are not spread-investing shadow banks, that are fixed rated on cap rate, relative size, and near term earnings accretion. Those metrics take on outsized importance when there is little ability to drive excess operational cash flow from underlying portfolio. We are playing a different game. Buying an attractive basis and compounding cash flow over time through simple and yet extraordinary difficult post closing execution. This advantageous divergence is only widening and it is critical to how we think about creating long term value for our existing investors. At the same time, I would be remiss not to mention that we continuously seek opportunities to refine the portfolio through selective dispositions. We sold $6 billion of dispositions this year. We are clearly willing to accept some near term dilution to extend and amplify the duration of our per-share earnings and cash flow growth. Lastly, given the current macro backdrop, it is worth highlighting that our balance sheet remains in excellent shape. Timothy will provide the details but we maintain exceptionally low leverage with a meaningful ramp in free cash flow expected in the coming years, our financial flexibility will be enhanced even farther. With that, I will turn it over to John.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Reported solid third quarter results with continued strength across the business. Total portfolio same-store NOI grew 15.8% driven by another standout performance from our senior housing operating portfolio, which grew 21% year-over-year. This marks the 16th consecutive quarter or 4 full years of compounding growth in which the SHOP same-store NOI grew over 20%. As Shankh mentioned, our niche seniors housing portfolio remained largely insulated from growing economic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical turbulence. And while macro conditions may ebb and flow, our operating partners remain unwavering in their focus on maximizing NOI through a combination of occupancy, rate, and expenses while also providing a superior resident and employee experience. In that light, during the quarter, we reported a healthy occupancy gain of 320 basis points but we are particularly pleased with the acceleration in RevPOR growth to 5.3%. The dual revenue drivers of occupancy and rate resulted in another quarter where organic revenue growth exceeded 9%. A handoff from occupancy to rate as the primary driver of top line growth is now taking shape as we expected. With communities rapidly leasing up, and further reinforced by the substantial influence of residents across our micro markets. In communities above 90% occupancy, which represent 2-thirds of the portfolio, our operators are driving RevPOR growth of over 6%. We are also delighted with our operators' expense management. With same store OpEx increasing 4.3% year-over-year. More importantly, after adjusting for occupancy gains during the period, ExpPOR, a more relevant measure of underlying cost growth, increased only 80 basis points. In Canada, ExpPOR growth was essentially flat reflecting occupancy moving in the low 90% range and benign underlying expense pressure. While operational scaling has undoubtedly contributed to muted ExpPOR growth, of equal, if not greater importance, are our ongoing efforts to leverage technology, systems, processes, and data through WBS to improve efficiency while simultaneously enhancing the resident and site level employee experience. In terms of labor, our largest expense item by a wide margin wage growth, has been subdued relative to prior years. The labor availability and retention trends have generally improved. As a result, CompPOR or compensation per occupied room, grew only 90 basis points. Looking ahead, we would expect further improvement in key metrics, including employee turnover, driven by WBS initiatives, our regional densification strategy, and the Munger grant. From an overall profitability standpoint, SHOP achieved a same-store NOI margin of 31.7%. up 310 basis points year-over-year. Notably, the flow through margin for the quarter was 66%, a post COVID high watermark for the company. While operator leverage provides meaningful flow-through, but the rental rate growth is a more powerful driver. As incremental revenue carries essentially no associated cost. We are encouraged by another quarter of favorable results but as you know, we take nothing for granted. Senior housing is a 24/7 business where execution at the micro level remains critically important. This is anything but a commodity business. Even with the same micro market, differences in operator acumen and product market fit can mean the difference between 2% and 20% growth. This is exactly why together with our best in class operators, our priority remains creating a modern digital experience for our residents, their families, and site level employees through Welltower Business System. The data it generates is what enables our partners to optimize execution at that micro level. To sum it up, it was another strong quarter for Welltower, and our operators. But we remain squarely focused on the future. I am grateful for all the hard work by our site team members our operating partners, and the Welltower team. The opportunity set to drive cash flow from our existing portfolio continues to expand and remains our top priority. We are thrilled with the caliber of talent we continue to attract and excited about the what the broader team will deliver in the years beyond 2027 and the years beyond. With that, I will turn it over to Nikhil.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Since our last call, the macroeconomic environment has continued to deteriorate. In September, the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023. The ECB and the Bank of Japan raised rates the same month taking Japan's policy rate to its highest level since 2000. Inflation reaccelerated to 3.7% in September, and markets are now pricing more hikes. Not cuts. At the long end, the picture is darker. The 30 year treasury moved 5.3% in August, a level last seen in 2007. And earlier this month, the 10-year touched 5.36%. Its highest level since 2002. Meanwhile, the war in The Middle East has widened rather than resolved. With attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure pushing oil back above $100 per barrel. The stress from a highly volatile macro and geopolitical environment is showing up exactly where you would expect. For equity capital, we are seeing core capital seek double digit core plus returns without stepping up on the risk curve. On the credit side, private credit defaults are running 6%, once PIC amendments and extensions are counted versus historic averages of 2% to 2.5%. And global regulators now designate the sector a systemic risk. CMBS delinquencies have climbed 8%, the highest since late 2020. And special servicing rates are the highest since 2013. Spreads on the lowest rated corporate credit are the widest since February 2022. Let me be clear about what this means. For our sector and for us. After roughly $8 billion of U.S. senior housing debt comes due in 2026, Annual maturities step up further, in 2027 and 2028. To between $10 billion and $12 billion. Much of this debt was originated between 2020 and 2022 in a fundamentally different rate environment. The owners of these assets face a critical decision recapitalize or sell. While some owners may recapitalize, most will sell as the impact of rising rates offsets improved industry fundamentals. That is where Welltower comes in. When financing markets turn volatile, sellers stop asking who will pay the most on paper. They ask who will actually close. On time at the agreed price without a retrade. Our reputation has been built on exactly that. Speed, quality, and ease of execution. And honoring our word to the life of a transaction. We have strategically positioned our balance sheet to support that reputation through an entire cycle. With the liquidity and flexibility to honor our commitments, and capitalize on opportunities when others are constrained. In a handshake business, we have a balance sheet that no 1 ever questions. As the 2027 maturity wall and the higher for longer interest rates come into focus, we are seeing our investment activity expand. We remain extremely disciplined in the opportunities that we pursue, acquiring 3% of the assets that we screen by leveraging our proprietary and irreplaceable data science platform. Even at that hit rate, since our last call, our investment activity has increased by another $5.5 billion bringing our year to date investment activity to $21 billion. With $13.3 billion closed through the end of the third quarter, our team is working diligently to close the remaining $7.7 billion across 50 transactions. 85% of this 7.7 billion of activity was sourced off market and more than 50% of which has the sellers taking at least some portion of the sales proceeds in Welltower OP units. I want to reflect on this for a moment. In a market where cash is scarce and expensive, these owners have a choice. They can cash out or they can roll their equity into Welltower and stay invested in the sector alongside us. Increasingly, they are choosing the latter. They are choosing our balance sheet over their own. We take that as the most meaningful vote of confidence a counterparty can give. They are not just selling to us. They are investing alongside us. Digging into the third quarter, we completed more than 30 transactions totaling $3.8 billion with a median transaction size of $38 million. 70% of which was activity across 43 communities in our seniors housing operating portfolio. These assets have an average age of 4 years, an average size of over 160 units, and are 66% occupied. These communities have a blended RevPOR in excess of more than $10 thousand per month. And represent amongst the highest quality cohorts of our acquisition activity in the last few years. These assets were acquired at an approximately 10% to 15% discount for replacement cost, with material growth potential as we lease them up and stabilize operations by working closely with our operating partners and leveraging WBS. I encourage you all to review some of the images of these communities in our earnings presentation. In addition to these seniors housing properties, our roughly $850 million of SNF acquisitions in this quarter spanned 8 different transactions. With 100% of which was sourced off market. A reflection of our deep network in that part of the business. Staying on skilled nursing for a moment, I am pleased to report that Genesis Healthcare has completed its chapter 11 process. And Welltower received full repayment of over $130 million of senior secured term loans. When we substantially exited this relationship in 2021, we reported an 8.5% unleveraged IRR on our investments. since 2011. Since then, interim payments this final repayment takes that IRR to 9%. When this management team took over 11 years ago, Genesis, a highly levered and underperforming company, represented 20% of our earnings. With our loan exposures sitting at $600 million. The street would have preferred we split the company as others did or sell at the bottom and move on. We chose to fight. We sold a large portfolio to a private equity buyer financed through 1 of the largest CMBS transactions in health care real estate. We formed the sector's first direct joint venture with Asian Capital and later bought it back at a discount. We recapitalized and invested as participating preferred equity in other assets with a stronger operator. To learn from a better track record than our own. We restructured out of court in the middle of a pandemic, and finally, we saw it through a long and messy bankruptcy. I will be candid, A sub-10% return is nothing to celebrate. But Genesis taught us the skilled nursing business and its many intricacies allowing us to overcome our negative bias of the space through this experience. We learned to underwrite operators, not just buildings. And to structure for the downside because we had lived it. And it showed us something about our own team that a good investment never could. When things go wrong, we lean in. In good times, everyone looks like a great investor. Hard times reveal character. Genesis is now behind us, The lessons will stay with us for a very long time. With that, I will turn the call over to Timothy to walk through our financial results.

You, Nikhil. My comments today will focus on our third quarter 2026 results. The performance of our triple net investment segments, our capital activity, a balance sheet and liquidity update, and finally, an update to our full-year 2020 outlook. Welltower reported third quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $0.54 per diluted share. And normalized funds from operations of $1.67 per share, representing 24.6% year-over-year growth. We also reported year over year total portfolio same store NOI growth of 15.8%, driven by 21% year-over-year growth in our SHOP portfolio. Now turning to the performance of our triple net properties in the quarter. In our senior housing triple net portfolio, same store NOI increased 4.2% year-over-year, and trailing 12 month EBITDAR coverage was 1.22x. Next, same store NOI in our skilled nursing portfolio grew 2.8% year-over-year. And trailing 12 month EBITDAR coverage was 1.32x. Moving on to capital activity. During the third quarter, we raised $4.4 billion of capital, comprised of $3.1 billion from share issuance and OP unit funding, $480 million of capital recycling, and $835 million from our return to the Canadian unsecured market. Which was our first Canadian issuance since 2019. This capital, along with retained cash flow, allowed us to fund $4.1 billion of gross investment activity and retire $600 million of debt. While ending the quarter with $2.4 billion of cash on hand and net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 3.02x. On the Canadian issuance, we raised C$1.15 billion of senior unsecured notes at a blended 3.95% coupon and an average term of approximately 6 years. Allowing us to extend the duration of our liabilities at attractive pricing and highlighting the efficiency with which we are able to source global capital. Our $2.4 billion of cash on hand together with recent capital activity and approximately $1.9 billion of expected dispositions, position us to fund approximately $7.7 billion of incremental investment activity. Taken together, this net investment activity and continued cash flow growth in the in place portfolio are expected to result in year-end net debt to adjusted EBITDA ending in the low 3x range. Reflecting the timing of our net investment activity. Before turning to guidance, I want to spend a moment on the earnings growth implied by the midpoint of our refreshed full year guidance range. 22.9% normalized FFO per share growth for 2026. now ahead of the full-year growth we delivered in 2025. And off a meaningfully larger base, On the fourth quarter call earlier this year, I highlighted how the transformation of our portfolio anchored by the disposition of our outpatient medical portfolio, would change both the structural growth rate of the enterprise and the capital efficiency of that growth. Senior housing operating revenue, as reported in the third quarter, now approximates $12.5 billion, annualized. And the growth of that revenue base is becoming more durable and visible as RevPOR growth accelerated again in the quarter. And flow through also moved higher. With our SHOP portfolio converting approximately 66% of its incremental revenue into net operating income. As occupancy continues to trend higher, unit economics should continue to improve further. That is exactly what is coming through in these results. An improving portfolio mix, flow through that continues to move higher, and revenue growth increasingly led by rate. And we believe each of these trends has room to run. Moving on to guidance. Last night, we updated our full-year 2026 outlook. For net income attributable to common stockholders. To $3.31 to $3.37 per diluted share. And normalized FFO of $6.47 to $6.53 per share. Or $6.50 per share at the midpoint. Our normalized FFO guidance represents a $0.10 increase at the midpoint from our prior normalized FFO range. This increase is comprised of a $0.03 increase from senior housing operating NOI, a $0.055 increase from investment and financing activity, and a 1.5-cent increase from FX and income tax. Slightly offset by higher expected G&A. Our updated outlook assumes total portfolio year over year same store NOI growth of 15% to 16.25%. Driven by subsegment growth of outpatient medical of 2% to 3%, long term post acute of 2% to 3%. Senior housing triple net of 3.5% to 4.5%. And finally, senior housing operating, of 20.25% to 21.75%. Which is driven by the following midpoints of their respective ranges. Revenue growth of 9.3%, comprised of RevPOR growth of 5.1%, and year over year 350-basis-point increase in occupancy. and expense growth of 4.6%. Equating to ExpPOR growth of approximately 60 basis-points. Before handing the call back to Thank you, I would like to take a moment to highlight several enhancements we have made to our disclosure. Including combining our earnings release and supplemental into a single integrated document. And expanding transparency across our operating performance, growth drivers, and capital light businesses. These changes were shaped by feedback from our investors and analysts. And we appreciate the continued engagement. We believe these enhancements will streamline how you engage with our results while providing greater visibility into our business and the core drivers of long term per share cash growth. And with that, I will hand the call back over to Shankh.

Thank you, Timothy. As I reflect on the current state of the industry, I would like to reiterate a point I have been making for years. Which is plainly stated on our website itself. And that is, we believe there is no beta in the business of senior living. This is not a homogeneous industry. The cyclical post-COVID bounce in occupancy we have witnessed across the sector, has masked the fact that a rising tide does not lift all boats. We are now entering a period in which pricing power should become an increasingly important driver of performance as occupancy eclipse 90% reflecting a simple reality: In a consumer-oriented business, differentiated premium product commands pricing power, that commodity product simply will not. Looking forward, it is differentiated operations and product market fit that will increasingly define revenue growth and thus margin expansion and cash flow growth. This is where much of the mid market product may begin to falter. And the early signs of that are already emerging amongst some industry participants. While passive capital has once again taken an approach that allocating money to this newfound industry is a sure bet, riding the silver tsunami. They once again will learn. A costly lesson when the returns do not come through. An institutional investor at a conference in Chicago last week asked me, how hard can it be given the rising tide? I asked her to check her firm's own track record in the sector. over the last decade to answer that question. After all, as Mark Twain once said, it ai not what you do not know that gets you in trouble. it is what you know for sure. that just ai not so. As far as we at Welltower are concerned, we remain obsessive about our product market fit. And continue to further hone our portfolio. By allocating capital with house odds instead of gamblers odds. Our $6 billion in asset sales this year with our extreme selectivity that I described earlier hopefully paints the clearer picture for you. Perhaps we will be proven wrong, and catch phrases like demographics or silver tsunami will bail everyone. Let me make it abundantly clear. We do not think so. The world is becoming more complex. More interconnected, and more volatile by the day. Sudden shifts in technology, geopolitics, culture, and capital that once unfolded over years or decades now can happen in a blink of an eye. These abrupt changes are not simply rewriting the rules. They are changing the game itself. Pushing our society and markets into increasingly unfamiliar territory. We welcome these environments, and as you may have noticed over the years, tend to thrive in them. Our team performs unusually well in volatile, ambiguous, and high stakes situations. Drawing on sheer grit, intellectual curiosity, the humility of a beginner's mind, and the temperament of a stoic. Perhaps it helps that we operate in a need based business with enormous opportunity for improvement regardless of the noise around us. Perhaps it also helps that we sit at the center of a deeply human centric business where our success does not depend on predicting winners and losers across many crosscurrents shaping the markets. Yet, 1 broader trend is difficult to ignore. The quiet and steady erosion of human agency in our society today. In an increasingly complex and chaotic world, We are determined to move in the opposite direction. In the moments that matter the most, we want to provide our residents with an attentive empathetic and delightful human interaction, rooted in dignity, and compassion. We do not believe the future, however uncertain,, is something that we simply inherit. It is something we have a responsibility to help shape, and where we can to build. And with that, I will open the call up for questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press 1 again. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to 1 question and rejoin the queue if needed. Thank you. Your first question comes from Farrell Granath with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Thank you, and good morning. My first question is really around the added commentary and the added slide in your deck when it came to your investment volumes. And, specifically, the execution of the 196 granular deals your added commentary about the 27 maturities, as well as only executing 3% of the deals that you are evaluating. And so it comes down to, the question is, why is Well winning these deals? Is it the pricing opportunity that you are presenting? Is it the operations or platform that you are able to pretty much show in your portfolio, or is it the co investing opportunity that you also outlined?

Yeah. I think, Farrell, it just comes down to reputation. I mean, we are paying a fair value on the seller's cash flow. And, you know, no 1 questions the speed, the conviction, the ability to close. And we just bend over backwards to deliver a high quality transaction experience to whoever we do business with. It comes down to every step of the way from the speed, the quality, the practical mindedness, of how you negotiate documents and how you move things along. it is just a pleasant experience. And just think about anything you do in life, if you have a pleasant experience with something, you would like to do more of that. So there is a lot of repeat business with folks we do to do business with. I mentioned, you know, a lot of folks are taking OP units as part of the consideration. So there is a choice to be made where they decide that between party a, b, or c, whose currency do they want to take? And the proof's in the pudding. You are seeing folks' actions And we are doing all of this while being incredibly disciplined. Executing at a very granular level. 196 transactions is a lot of transactions. it is almost 1 transaction closed per business day of the year. it is a lot. But that is. it is a detailed business. it is a granular business. And we are fortunate to have the data science tools that allow us to have that level of neighborhood level granular view of an asset and a really strong view on what we can do with the asset once we own it. And so that is how we execute.

Your next question comes from Vikram Malhotra with Mizuho. Your line is open.

Morning. Thank you for taking the question. I guess, Thank you, you referenced pricing power a couple of times and the differentiation. So I guess my question is if we were to look 2 years forward, you know, looking back, what would differentiate Wells from an operating standpoint? And similarly, from an external growth standpoint? Just given your size, are we running into sort of a law of large numbers? So just, If you can give us a sense of, like, what really will differentiate us 2 to 3 years from now when we look back?

Thank you, Vikram. So a couple of things I would mention. First is if you. Let's start with the first question, which I think is the most important 1. I think we have obsessed if you sort of think about the last 10 years. To completely change this company. The portfolio from selling tens of billions of dollars of assets and then building a significant data science platform that does not exist in the business of commercial real estate. To really focus and hone in on micro markets, understand psychographics, understand driving patterns, cell phone data, all of these to come together for what we think where we can offer with our operating partners, premium operating partners, an exceptional performance. That. For that performance, these discerning customers are willing to pay. it is very important that you understand. People have choice. If they are choosing to live with us, that is a responsibility we have. To deliver that premium service, that premium product. And for that, people are willing to pay. And that will become the differentiator as you think about the easier occupancy growth story is increasingly behind us as the industry fills up. And that is the most important point. And you could recall the last summer, I said this on this call, like, as we get closer to the end of 2026 and the industry sort of gets to 90%-plus occupancy, that will become the main driver. And I am glad that is happening. We have not seen, you know, the roughly 11 years of doing this, a better pricing environment that we saw this summer. This fall. Rich? So this is very important But very importantly, for a discerning customer they will only be willing to pay that for a discerning product and service. that is the first 1. The answer to your first question. The second question is an interesting 1, which is this, you know, sort of a size point. If our goal was the size of a balance sheet or size of a company, I 100% agree the idea of a, say, a smaller balance sheet relative to a larger balance sheet would be the right way to think about it. And frankly speaking, the reason that a lot of people think about it is the historic triple net nature of this business. But remember, that is not our goal. Our goal is to drive per-share cash flow and earnings. And the par share cash flow or earnings, it is really driven by. And from our standpoint of what we own, and not what we can buy. So it is a different understanding. that is what I mean. You know, this is clearly a shadow bank mentality, and I understand why that is the case. But understand our ability to drive post closing, our ability to drive cash flow is what drives our per-share earnings and cash flow. If we never buy another asset, I will be completely fine. I hope that answers your question.

Your next question comes from Ronald Kamden with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hey, great. Just thinking about the total occupancy of the portfolio, it is still at 88.3%. Obviously, I appreciate acquisitions are coming in. I know historically, we have talked about the 95%-plus-occupied cohort. I guess I was curious if, number 1, we could get an update on those. And No. 2, if you had a view of what the structural vacancy of the portfolio is. Shankh.

Yeah. So let me try to answer that question. First is when I am really emphasizing on price, that does not mean that we think that occupancy growth is not ahead of us. We believe that, you know, we have a fairly significant number of. Or percent of our portfolio is above 90% occupied, and we believe there is no reason we cannot take the whole portfolio up there if we freeze the portfolio where it is today. So you made the point that, obviously, as we buy, you know, as Nikhil said on the call, we bought this quarter were 66%. So you think about mix shift aside of product coming in. To freeze the portfolio today. There is no reason that we would not be able to take the whole portfolio there. What was the other part of the question, Ronald, that I did not answer?

Okay. The performance of the 95%-plus cohort, how that is sort of trending?

The performance of the 90%-plus cohort had RevPAR growth of over 6% and NOI growth above 21%.

Your next question comes from Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Your line is open.

Good morning. thanks a lot for taking my question. Shankh, it seems like capital does not appear to be the constraint today. The acquisition opportunities seems to be expanding. So as you think about Welltower over the next 5 years, what ultimately becomes the binding constraint to compound your cash flow? You know, is it acquisitions? Is it operating partner capacity? WBS? Just trying to get a sense of what could prevent that constraint from becoming the bottleneck.

Yeah. So I want to be. I think I was trying to answer that question when Vikram asked it. I want to be abundantly clear. Acquisition-- first, is we are not capital constrained, we are opportunity-constrained. If we are not opportunity constrained, we would not be this selective. Our selectivity suggests to you that we are extraordinarily focused on the long term pricing and, you know, sort of opportunity to compound cash flow. So we see everything that happens in this business. And then we see majority of it before anybody else sees it. that is how you get to 90%-plus of sort of off market opportunity. Off market execution that we had. In this business. So capital is not a constraint. Opportunity is the constraint. Rich? So. But if you just think about that, your question is more focused on if we think about the next 5 years of compounding of cash flow. we define it as per-share cash flow, not just cash flow. It will be entirely dependent on our execution of our existing portfolio. What we are able to achieve a volatile business system perspective, while our operating partners are able to provide an exceptional product and a service to a very discerning customer, it will be that. It will not be about whether we can buy or sell another property.

Your next question comes from Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning. Just hoping, Nikhil, maybe you could talk a little bit about the SNF investments that you made, the trends in kind of price per unit or yield the opportunity set, and the competitive dynamics with higher rates in the market today.

Yeah, Juan. So it is about $850 million across 8 different transactions. 4 different states, 100% off-market. And, you know, rent yields and skilled nursing have always been around 9%. So that is where they are. Then the question is, you know, what is behind the scenes what is the risk exposure? And, you know, as you have known, we have been executing on turnaround skill transactions for many years now. I have a really good track record in doing that. So there is more of the same. A lot of the former Integra subtenants, you know, 20-plus different operators that we have got good relationships with, and have had a lot of success together. You know, they are consistently feeding us opportunities. And based on that, we evaluate and see what makes sense for us to execute. You know, 1 new trend we are starting to see is seeing HUD for the first time impose single borrower limits on how much capital they will finance for any particular person through HUD. And, you know, with that, obviously, a follow through effect of that is if HUD is shut for some owners, then the bank market will pull back because their takeout is gone. And so what you are seeing is you know, a lot of high quality portfolios with a lot of trapped equity. Given, you know, the value appreciation and the improvement to operations. That they just are not able to tap. And so that is a new type of, you know, environment or a new type of transaction that we are seeing. We will see what comes of it, a relatively new trend that Started seeing over the last couple of months.

Your next question comes from Nick Yulico with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

I was hoping to hear how the performance of the non same store pool is in SHOP. And just wondering, you know, because the metrics, I know it is helpful you guys give those metrics, in the supplemental. But they are kind of lagging on occupancy, margin growth. And, I know it is not perfect since the pools changed, but maybe you just talk about the performance there relative to the same store and also whether The UK and Canada how those are those acquisitions are performing, since. And I think they are gonna be starting to enter the same store pool over the next year? Shankh.

So I will start. with that, Nick. So I think we enhanced our disclosure this quarter. With our non same store properties. And I think that is what you are kind of referencing. I think there are 2 things going on in that pool you should be cognizant of when there is developments that open. Those are all sitting in there. So thinking about size impact, thinking about margins and occupancy.

And, also, for the second straight quarter, Nikhil has highlighted how we are actively seeking out and successfully buying low occupied assets. So those are rolling in. If you strip those out and look at the assets that have been in the pool, for kind of like-for-like periods, get closer to 90 basis points of sequential occupancy increase. So we continue to see performance in this pool of assets that is, you know, in line with what we have in our what we see in our same store portfolio. And I think in regard to kind of geographic portfolios, we continue to be very optimistic about how those are gonna play out. In 2027. And just, Nick, just see Timothy's comments in light with the disruption that comes with operator change. Rich? Everything we are buying, we are effectively changing operators, so that disruption is also there, which is we do not mind taking disruption if it is the right decision for the communities in the long term. But those assets are performing well, and we think there is obviously significantly more upside over the next few years as you lease up those assets and then get into sort of that trend where you get pricing as a bigger opportunity for growth.

Your next question comes from Nick Joseph with Citi. Your line is open.

Shankh, how are you thinking about the magnitude of the pricing power opportunity for the portfolio? And then what metrics do you focus on to understand pricing power for an individual unit?

Yeah. So, Nick, 1 of the important things you think about report is a combined pricing unit. So many different types of pricing you have to think about existing customer rent increases, I have a long standing belief that I wrote in my last annual letter in a section called trade offs that we will not be supportive of significant customer rent increases beyond sort of call it high single digit. Because, you know, we just do not want to do that. And we believe that ultimately, running a portfolio below market is very good for us. it is not a problem. We are not in a hurry. At some point, we will get that unit, and we will get the unit back to back to the market. So if that is the case and report is accelerating through the year, which really should not happen given that majority of the customers get their rent increases. In the beginning of the year, that gives you with 1 idea. What has changed? What is different? Is street rates. Rich? So if ECRI remains relatively same, you get most of your ECRI at the beginning of the year. And only thing that is changed is street rates. So we are seeing meaningfully enhanced street rates. As customers are. As discerning customers are increasingly realizing that the differentiation of product and services that our premium operating partners provide. And as I said, that at least 11 years of this team doing this, have never seen a better pricing environment than we see today.

Your next question comes from Mike Mueller with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Yeah. Hi. Appreciate the new ExpPOR disclosure in particular. Curious, can you talk a little bit about the runway for keeping that growth below 1% where you are today or even sub-2%?

Mike, we are not going to we are not going to anchor ourselves to a specific number. But as you know, there are 2 things at play. 1 is there is a relatively large fixed cost component of the business. Operating leverage does matter. That is generally for the business, but for us specifically, what our business system is a very, very specific driver. You should just think about how the industry works. Know, you get sort of flat files from, on a monthly basis, from the operators and, you know, the relatively high level numbers versus, you know, you think about when a community sits on our side of the ledger, you can understand every detailed line item all the way through where the invoice sits. That sort of gives you an opportunity to understand different cost items on a granular basis. And then think about what is, necessary versus not or how you optimize that. it is a line item by line item conversation. it is not a broad line item conversation. So. And that is what our team is focused on with our operating partners. To see where the business as it gets really transformed by, you know, technology and systems, what part of the business side can be enhanced. that is obviously completely different from the care side of the business, which we have, which is the people side, we have a very, very clear idea, which is we want the best talent and we are willing to pay above market for the best talent. So that is different. We are focusing on the business side, versus the people side. Hopefully, that gives you a sense of how we are thinking about this.

Your next question comes from James Feldman with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you for taking the question. I mean, I know the market seems focused on some of the core drivers. Occupancy RevPAR today in the stock move. But maybe just taking a step back because I know, Thank you, whenever we speak to you, it is all about earnings growth, long term growth. Can you just talk more about 1 of the comments that stuck with us that you made is just how fast things are changing Clearly, geopolitically, a lot's changing. You know, sovereign debt balance sheets are changing. Can you just talk about the long-term view of expansion of the business across the globe where you think the long term growth opportunities might be, or even domestic domestically where maybe macroeconomic is changing across, you know, geographic markets as well as you think about the long term?

Thank you. So if you just think about this. We truly believe in expertise. Remaining within someone's circle of competence is an extraordinarily important concept for us. As you have seen, we have effectively sold out in most of the businesses and have focused on a very, very narrow set of businesses. This narrowing of focus is an extraordinary important for us. So you can be rest assured, that we are not looking to go into different countries. We are just--that is, know, without a course Even within our own, say, U.S., we are a prolific investor. We have a very focused product market fit. And that is what we are saying. In fact, we are becoming more and more selective about what product-market fit that we are after and have narrowed the business meaningfully into 1 idea. You just think about. So from our standpoint, we made our bets. From a what product we want and what we think that we can do well and provide a strong value for our customers. While still provide a strong value for our owners. Beyond that, we have no interest. So that. Then that is just a question of okay. In this environment, sort of what is going on in the sort of the macroeconomic environment to others, how do you drive additional value? And that is where we are doubling down and tripling down every day--our investments in technology and people and how we transform the business. And that, I think, will be the biggest driver of the business going forward.

Your next question comes from Omotayo Okusanya with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Wes. Good morning, everyone. Just wondering if you could talk a little bit about the growth opportunities in your other asset light fee income driven businesses, specifically the funds business and licensing of the data. Of the of the of the data science platform just interest in those 2 platforms, how you expect it to kind of grow over the next 2 to 3 years?

Yeah. So, you know, in the capital-light business, we added some additional disclosure in our supplemental. And you will see we expect that the revenues from that business should continue to go up. We have had an incredible start to our fund management business. I think I previously described the full deployment of our first equity fund, the raising of a credit fund, that is going well. And we are raising a subsequent equity fund on data science partnerships. We are in conversations with many groups. We are making good progress there as well. And you will continue to see progress in those in the supplemental as we keep getting more things completed.

Your next question comes from James Kammert with Evercore. Your line is open.

Good morning. Thank you. I apologize for the line here. Are you willing to disclose kind of the current SHOP. Pardon me, wellness housing NOI contribution? As a portion of the total and the margin for the wellness housing?

it is about 10% of the SHOP portfolio. And margins is in the mid-50s too. Wes.

Your next question comes from Rich Hightower with Barclays. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning, everybody. Question on dispositions. I know, Shankh, you have mentioned several times that obviously product-market fit. Are sort of critical components to the portfolio that you retain over time. So is it safe to assume that whatever has sort of been sold this year, you know, somehow does not check 1 or more of those boxes? And then also, could you add a little context around the recent Brookdale transaction that was made public earlier this month? Shankh.

Yeah. I think on the dispositions, you know, a decent amount of the numbers you are seeing is the medical office transaction that we talked about last year that is obviously closed in tranches. As we have gotten ground letter and tenant approvals. But, look, in general, you know, our view on dispositions is that if we think certain assets are, optimized or will not keep up with the growth of the rest of the company, just like the disposition of a significant portion of our medical office business, there is other hands that, you know, find more value in them. And that is a good thing. So we--that is how we decide what we are keeping versus what we are selling. it is all dependent on what the contribution it has to the go-forward growth of the company. And what was the other question?

Broke that. Brookdale.

Yeah. I think the Brookdale transaction, obviously, is 2 public companies, and, you know, there is disclosure out there. it is a win-win transaction. I mean, I think from Brookdale you should ask them, but they have a strategy of continuing to want to own more of their assets. And, our general view is we want to own seniors housing assets in a equity structure, a.k.a., in an equity structure, wherever we can and, you know, for these subset of assets. It made sense for Brookdale to continue on with their plan. Of owning more assets, and we were happy with the price we got. And so was a win-win transaction.

Your next question comes from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you. Shankh, you, you have spoken about the importance of product, demographics and wealth and kind of the benefits that it is going to have on pricing power as the occupancy growth kind of hands off to higher RevPOR growth? But you have also said that development really only pencils at the high end. And I know there is, you know, virtually, you know, a very limited amount of new starts today, but any concern that when supply ramps that it will be at that higher end and luxury side of the business and limit your ability to push rate?

So if you think about it, supply while it makes economic sense today, which I have seen very few. If you just think about is with all the talks of supply, and the best development pitch that somebody has given me at the NIC conference was 7.5% on revenue. I will tell you that in our books is a negative development spread. We can do untrended acquisitions today, that is in the high-7% to low-8% range. You know, after we buy an asset and then improve cash flow. So the returns are clearly not there. But where it would make sense is will be where you have unlimited pricing power such as Brookline. Or when built. The thing is that if you go and try where supply probably would make sense. Say Cupertino. Say Brookline. that is why it will take you a decade to actually get this supplied. So it will make sense, you know, for, you know, somebody. Let's say you want to build an asset in Cupertino, and actually might make sense on a spreadsheet The question is, can you? So we do not believe that we are gonna live in a world that will be oversupplied. And, you know, if that happens, we are willing to live through that, because we do believe that is where you will have the best pricing power. But, you know, any. Anything is possible I do not consider that as probable. But we will see.

Your next question comes from Michael Carroll with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Wes, thanks. With the comments in the prepared remarks, that Welltower's portfolio is starting to transition to more RevPOR gains, from occupancy gains. Now, I understand that RevPOR should pick up when occupancy gets into that low- to mid-90% range. But is this RevPOR increase similar? To the incremental scaling you get from occupancy gains? Guess I am just trying to understand if the spread between RevPOR and ExpPOR, does that hold steady as you start to push RevPOR more aggressively when it kind of gets up into that low- to mid-90% range?

Yeah, Mike. What we are seeing right now in the portfolio and this is why we kind of talk about it from where we see our assets at 95%. Plus occupied and as that makes up a bigger part of the pool. Now it is about 35% of our total properties in the same store pool. It just gives us a good view into how assets will perform or how more the portfolio performs as it hits that level. And we are seeing RevPOR, ExpPOR spreads there that are comparable to, if not greater than, what we see in the rest of the portfolio.

Mike, I personally. This is obviously I personally think that pricing has a bigger impact on flow-through margin. Not necessarily we are just thinking just rep or export. You got the answer from Timothy. But on the margin, whether it is from a dollar of, you know, revenue from occupancy versus pricing, you will have bigger impact if it comes from pricing on flow through margin. So if you think about the total dollar of profitability, that absolutely is shifted higher as you sort of think about more pricing than occupancy. And that is sort of what the comments came from, and you saw that this quarter's numbers, and I think you will see that as sort of the next few years play out.

Your next question comes from Richard Anderson with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Great quarter. I wanted to go back to Nikhil's comment around Genesis and the lessons that will stay with you for a long time. Can you talk about what those lessons are specifically and what you will not do again in the context of that Genesis, situation, and maybe you can also extrapolate that to other swings and misses that you might characterize other transactions in your past and how that informs you going forward? Shankh.

No. Richard, I would let Nikhil answer that question, but I would be particularly focused on the framing of that question you had. Which is what we would not do again is not the right framing because we did not do Genesis. Our predecessor company did and it will start with not making $600 million loans to a broken balance sheet, if they could start.

Nikhil, I will let you answer the question. Yeah. Well, I think, Richard, beyond, you know, Shankh stole my thunder on the loan Do not make a problem, you know. Make it bigger by lending to it. But, look, I think our initial reaction of skilled nursing when we were starting to clean up Genesis was that it is a bad business. it is a bad business where you cannot get decent skill mix. it is a bad business where unlike the senior housing business where if you make a building beautiful, you spend money improving the quality of it. You have a good reputation, you have good relationships, and none of that matters at the end of the day. You are gonna have a building that just has a 10% margin for lack of a better term. But then as we dug into I think, the preferred equity investment we made was 1 of the best things we did as a company. Small check. But, you know, we did a joint venture with 1 of the operators that had a really good track record. And we just. Out of intellectual curiosity, we said, you know, why is it that if you try to sell some assets, 10 folks show up to try and buy assets? You know, folks have made a lifetime worth of living by buying assets from Genesis and other similar, you know, companies and turning them around. I mean, you saw what we did with the Integra portfolio, the former Medicaid assets. You know, so it was just digging into the business not being a bad business as we originally thought. It came down to execution. It came down to specificities. On how you manage a business, how you manage hospital relationships, operating expenses, And if you do enough things right, it can be a good business. So those are the big things we learned. And we had to keep questioning our own biases. We had to keep questioning our own views. But we did that through data, through incremental information, And as the facts change, our views change. And that is what that is what you got.

Your next question comes from Michael Stroyeck with Green Street. Your line is open.

Thank you, and good morning. Can you just touch on the senior housing transaction market and valuations across The U. S, U. K. And Canada? Where have you seen the most repricing in recent months? And can you just give us some sense for the magnitude of repricing that is occurring relative to, call it, 3 or so months ago before rates ran up a bit?

Yeah. Look. I think, it is probably too soon to see significant repricing. there is always a lag between you know, what you see on the Bloomberg screen versus what you see in a transaction market. What you are seeing is folks value certainty, folks are concerned about retrades, folks be concerned about the ability to close. That is starting to show up. I mean, if you look at the acquisitions we had in the third quarter, you know, 66% occupied for newer vintage assets. You know, why did people decide to sell those assets? They decided to sell those assets because in their head, they had a view as developers that interest rates are coming down. And then the Fed changed course. And now it is starting to become a foregone conclusion that there will be more of that. And so then, you know, the response to that was, if I can get a reasonable number for my asset, I will not try to stay the course wait a year or 2 to fill up the buildings. And try to maximize the outcome. Rich? So it is that change of sentiment that folks are saying good enough is good enough, and let's go to a high quality counterparty. And maybe we can participate in some of the recovery that we are leaving behind through taking some OP units. So you are starting to see all of that.

This concludes the question and answer session, and we will conclude today's earnings call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.