Introducing Tom Hartley’s contribution to the SHHA Report: Demand Resilience and Strategic Discipline.
The recently launched Senior Housing & Healthcare Association (SHHA) Report, unveiled at MIPIM, brings together one of the most comprehensive views of the senior housing and healthcare sector across Europe.
Drawing on insights from investors, operators, developers and advisors, the report captures a sector that is evolving quickly.
Our Managing Director, Tom Hartley’s contribution focuses on two themes that are becoming central to investment thinking: demand resilience and strategic discipline.
Here are five takeaways from Tom Hartley’s article in the SHHA report.
1. Demand fundamentals remain very strong
After several years of macroeconomic and regulatory pressure, the sector is demonstrating a clear ability to adapt. One of the most encouraging themes is the continued strength of underlying demand.
2. Profitability under pressure
Demand and pricing remained highly resilient in 2025, with strong occupancy levels across the UK and Spain, particularly in high-quality assets. Alongside continued fee growth, this reinforces the sector’s underlying structural strength. However, to maintain growth, the sector needs greater transparency and consistency around funding structures, cost drivers, and long-term workforce strategy.
3. From niche to mainstream infrastructure
2026 is set to be a year of more disciplined, strategic expansion with growing development activity and investor optimism.
“Not just a property play”
The senior living and healthcare real estate sector is often misunderstood as a property play, when in reality, outcomes are shaped by staffing models, care quality, community integration, and funding structures as much as by real estate fundamentals. When we look at the data across multiple markets, we see that well-managed small and medium-sized operators perform just as well as larger groups. Success depends on operational excellence rather than scale alone.
4. Collective action will drive the market forward
As the sector matures, collective action should focus on three priorities:
- Pan-European data transparency: Transparency across Europe will help drive pan-European investments.
- Workforce availability and advocacy: Improving public perception of care would improve resilience across the sector.
- Public narrative repositioning: Reframing senior living as preventative healthcare infrastructure could unlock broader institutional capital.
5. Senior living and healthcare real estate is moving from niche to necessity
By 2040, the 75+ population across Europe will have expanded dramatically. The question is not whether demand will exist; it will.
The decisive issue is whether today’s decisions create scalable, resilient platforms capable of meeting that demand sustainably.
Read more in the full article
You can read more about the data and see the latest figures in Tom Hartley’s full article on page 20 of the SHHA Report March 2026.
In addition to Tom’s article, the 106-page report is packed with multi-stakeholder perspectives on global investment opportunities from sector experts.
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