CHICAGO—Profound changes, both demographic and political, are hitting the healthcare sector, and as providers respond by using more small retail-style outlets to serve patients, investors in net lease product have started to see opportunities.

"There is a reason that the median cap rate for the net lease medical sector is 15 bps below the rest of the market," Randy Blankstein, president of the Boulder Group, a net lease investment brokerage firm located in suburban Chicago, tells GlobeSt.com. The company just published a study on the sector and found that the median asking cap rate declined from 6.72% one year ago to 6.5% in the third quarter. The overall rate for the net lease retail market stood at 6.65 %. "Buyers are looking for growing sectors with growing business models," and few sectors can count on growth more than health care.

"The days of going to the big hospital or medical office building to get treatment are certainly not over," Blankstein adds, but relatively small retail outlets where doctors and other medical professionals provide specialized care are popping up everywhere. Patients that need dialysis treatment, for example, are more liable these days to visit and ex-Borders bookstore that has been transformed into a health care facility.