NEW YORK CITY-A strategic alliance between Real Capital Analytics and the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry announced yesterday aims to improve investment decisions made about the growing seniors housing sector.

“With the increased interest in the seniors housing property sector, we at NIC have been collecting information on those sales transactions and elected to partner with Real Capital Analytics, which has a strong reputation within the commercial real estate sector,” NIC director of research and analysis Chuck Harry tells GlobeSt.com. Harry adds that the alliance will combine the two company’s areas of expertise: NIC’s knowledge of the seniors housing and care sector and RCA’s ability to track commercial real estate transactions.

According to data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries, Harry’s assertion about the focus of attention on the seniors housing is on the mark. Returns for the sector have consistently outperformed the group’s property index. As of the fourth quarter of 2010, the seven-year return, for instance, has generated an annualized return of 15.2%, versus 7.3% for the NPI. Total income returns for Q4 2011 were above those for the NPI and total apartment data as well.

Harry places this data ahead of the aging Baby Boomer population, which the US Census estimates to number 79 million, as a reason for growth in the sector. That group hasn’t yet hit the age when seniors housing has become a choice they’re looking into. “The reality is that, with the oldest baby boomers just beginning their senior years, having turned 65, it’s more individuals in their 70s or 80s that are typically relocating into seniors housing,” he says.

Bob White, RCA’s founder and president, also emphasized growth in a release announcing the alliance. “Seniors housing properties are currently attracting tremendous amounts of capital,” White said in the release. “So far in 2011, we have recorded $15 billion of property sales with another $7.5 billion pending, a huge amount of transactions that surpasses volume in the office sector.” 

According to the agreement reached between the two companies, NIC will provide RCA with information from its US seniors housing database. RCA will then add industry trend reports and analytics, all of which will be offered to both NIC MAP subscribers and RCA clients by the end of the year.