McMurtry tells GlobeSt.com seniors housing acquisitions "remain in high demand from both institutional investors and owner/operators." But buyers "appear to have become more selective in their acquisitions, as compared to this time last year." That may be because cap rates "have remained stable for the past six months," the broker adds.

"The last time the market turned away from a strong sellers' market, lenders helped facilitate the change with more conservative underwriting requirements," McMurtry says. "This is one area to monitor to help determine how long this seller's market will continue. We have seen no movement towards more conservative underwriting yet."

McMurtry says pricing, "as always is greatly dictated by buyer type [with] institutional buyers continuing to be the most aggressive." He says buyers "are still willing to pay a substantial premium for portfolios, partially because of the strong interest from institutional investors." McMurtry notes that "in a competitive bidding environment, confidence in a buyer's due diligence efforts prior to making an offer is an important factor in selecting who to choose."

McMurtry tells GlobeSt.com that "in the early years of the seniors housing industry, the mantra was that this is a business and not real estate. While this is true to a significant extent, we believe the underlying value of the real estate is a substantial determinant of value. Part of this change was dictated by the influence of institutional buyers who are more real estate-oriented versus operations oriented." He notes "strong underlying real estate can provide a safety net in value, should operations falter."

On the continuing care retirement communities category in seniors housing development, McMurtry says, "we have seen a significant increase in buyer interest in entrance fee CCRCs. While an extremely complicated model, the tremendous barriers to entry have strong appeal, and many new for-profit buyers are coming up the learning curve."