Center Stage: Why Senior Housing Capital Is All In for 2026

Host Lisa McCracken welcomes Courtney Nickels, managing director and COO of healthcare at Artemis Real Estate Partners, for a candid conversation about why senior housing is now center stage for investors heading into 2026. Drawing on her career-long focus in healthcare real estate, Nickels discusses how accelerating demand and historically low new supply are driving strong rent growth, occupancy above pre-COVID levels, and expectations for continued double-digit NOI growth—even as labor remains the top headwind to watch.​

The discussion also explores the wave of new equity and debt capital coming into seniors housing, rising competition for deals, and what it takes to succeed in an operationally complex, local, and people-centric business. Nickels outlines Artemis’ disciplined, scalable strategy across the capital stack and care continuum—from active adult through assisted living and memory care—with an emphasis on private-pay, continuum of care communities, strong local and regional operator partnerships, selective development, and maintaining appropriate risk-adjusted returns in what she believes will be a defining year for the sector.

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