Why assisted living is becoming a global REIT conviction call

The next great property story may not be told through office towers, shopping centres, or logistics sheds. Demography may write it instead, quietly and durably, with the force of an ageing world that increasingly needs accommodation for later life. 

For advisers, that shift is starting to matter as an investment theme rather than just a social one. Senior housing and assisted living assets sit at the intersection of real estate, healthcare, and social infrastructure.  

Demand grows with population ageing, while supply is constrained by development costs, regulation, labour shortages, and the challenge of delivering purpose-built accommodation at scale. That is where listed global real estate becomes relevant. 

The Dexus Global REIT Fund has leaned into this theme with exposure to assisted living and senior housing REITs. Its February 2026 update shows Welltower, Ventas, Chartwell Retirement Residences, and Sienna Senior Living among the portfolio’s five largest holdings. 

In other words, the fund offers a useful window into how a broad demographic thesis translates into listed real assets.

Demographics meet supply discipline

The assisted living thesis is not especially complex, which is part of its attraction. Dexus portfolio manager David Kruth observes that the arithmetic is compelling. The compound annual growth rate of Americans aged over 80 ran at 1.4 per cent over the past 15 years. That rate is expected to accelerate to 5 per cent between 2026 and 2030.

The demand side is therefore visible years in advance. The harder question is whether supply can respond. Dexus’s contention is that it cannot respond quickly enough. In the same note, Kruth argues that “required unit delivery far exceeds current construction”, assuming 90 per cent occupancy.  

That supply-demand imbalance is where the adviser conversation becomes more practical. Senior housing is not merely a social infrastructure story. It has direct implications for occupancy, rent growth, operating leverage, and net operating income.  

Dexus notes that assisted living is the portfolio’s largest exposure at more than 24 per cent, compared with an index weighting of 12.65 per cent, reflecting where it sees the clearest earnings momentum.  

External evidence supports the same direction of travel. S&P Global Market Intelligence argues that healthcare REITs with senior housing exposure benefit from ageing demographics, higher healthcare spending, and constrained new supply. It also forecasts Welltower and Ventas occupancy rising to 87 per cent in 2025, up from 83 and 85 per cent in 2024.

CBRE’s late-2025 senior housing investor survey offers a similar institutional read. More than 84 per cent of respondents expected senior housing cap rates to compress within 12 months. Meanwhile, 69 per cent anticipated rental rate increases of 3 to 7 per cent across active adult, independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities.

CBRE also cited NIC MAP data showing the sector needed to add more than 200,000 units by 2028, while only 20,034 units were under construction as of the third quarter of 2025.  

Why active exposure matters

For advisers, the key question is not whether ageing is investable. It is how best to access the theme without overpaying for it. This is where Dexus’s active management argument becomes central.

Dexus has been direct about the limitations of index exposure. Dexus argues that global REIT benchmarks tend to skew towards large-capitalisation stocks. The Dexus Global REIT Fund carries greater exposure to small and mid-cap names, where valuation anomalies are more likely to arise.

Chartwell is the case study Dexus uses to illustrate the point. According to Dexus, the Toronto-listed senior housing operator had a 4.0 per cent fund weighting versus a 0 per cent benchmark. Chartwell’s same-property occupancy rose from 80.6 per cent in 2022 to 95.2 per cent in 2025. Over five years, it delivered an annualised total return of 32.7 per cent, compared with 15.5 per cent for Canadian REITs and 6.4 per cent for global REITs.

The implication for advisers is that assisted living is not a generic beta call. It is a stock selection market. Operators differ by geography, balance sheet, portfolio age, pricing power, labour cost exposure, and regulatory setting. The thematic case may be broad, but the investable opportunity is not uniform.

Dexus’s broader argument is that public markets are still mispricing parts of listed real estate relative to private-market values. It points to a series of take-private and merger transactions in listed property as evidence that private capital is willing to pay more than public markets are currently recognising.  

Income, risk, and portfolio context

The data shows the Dexus Global REIT Fund has delivered an 8.61 per cent annualised total return since inception, compared with 6.99 per cent for the GPR 250 REIT Net Index. The fund’s distribution yield is 3.70 per cent.

The portfolio carries no borrowing, remains unhedged, and delivers monthly distributions while targeting lower-than-market volatility over five to seven years.

Assisted living REITs are still listed securities, exposed to sentiment, rates, labour costs, regulation, and valuation cycles. But for advisers seeking differentiated real asset exposure, the category offers something rare: a demand trend that is visible, measurable, and largely independent of the economic cycle.

The traditional property conversation often focuses on office towers, shopping centres, and industrial sheds. The Dexus portfolio suggests that conversation is changing. For advisers, the opportunity may be less about buying property in the old sense and more about identifying the real estate sectors where social change is becoming rental income.