National Healthcare Properties has closed the first piece of its exit from outpatient medical real estate, selling 30 buildings for roughly $198 million and using the money to clear two loans off its balance sheet.
The Nasdaq-listed real estate investment trust said on Sept. 10 that it had completed the primarily multi-tenant first tranche of a previously announced sale of 86 outpatient medical facilities for about $528 million. The 30 properties in this closing generated approximately $79 million in net cash proceeds before transaction expenses.
The company used the proceeds to repay in full its Secured Term Loan 1 due 2028 and Secured Term Loan 3 due 2031, which together totaled $119 million. Notably, that $119 million included $60 million of debt encumbering other outpatient buildings that are not among the 86 properties being sold, so the repayment reaches beyond the assets actually changing hands.
The rest of the portfolio
The remaining 56 buildings are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. That closing depends on the buyer assuming roughly $220 million of secured debt, identified as Secured Term Loan 4 due 2033, along with customary conditions.
The structure explains why a $528 million headline produces only $79 million of cash in the first step. Much of the consideration is debt moving to the buyer rather than money arriving at the seller. The company entered the purchase and sale agreement on May 4, 2026, according to a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which put the approximate secured debt to be defeased or assumed by the purchaser at $278 million and said the deal was expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
The filing describes the counterparty only as “an affiliated third party” and does not name the buyer. It also notes the full agreement would be filed as an exhibit to the company’s quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2026.
A REIT narrowing its focus
National Healthcare Properties describes itself as a self-managed REIT investing in a diversified portfolio of healthcare real estate “with an emphasis on providing senior housing to serve a growing elderly population in the United States.” Shedding most of an outpatient medical portfolio is the practical expression of that emphasis: the company is trading a property type leased to physician groups and health systems for one where it takes operating exposure to residents.
The shift runs against the direction of a fair amount of institutional money. Outpatient medical buildings have drawn fresh capital this year, including a $400 million equity joint venture between Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate and Nuveen Real Estate announced in August to fund roughly $1.3 billion of healthcare development.
Senior housing, though, has been the stronger performer on the operating line. Healthpeak Properties, an S&P 500 healthcare REIT, reported same-store senior housing net operating income up 19.2% in the second quarter, against 2.5% growth in its outpatient medical segment. That gap is the bet National Healthcare Properties is making, and it is also the risk: operator-exposed senior housing income swings with occupancy, labor costs and rate growth in a way that a triple-net medical office lease does not.
The company trades on the Nasdaq Global Market under NHP, with two preferred series, a 7.375% Series A and a 7.125% Series B, listed under NHPAP and NHPBP. On our reading, that capital structure is part of why balance-sheet work of this kind matters: secured term debt and preferred dividends both rank ahead of common shareholders, and retiring $119 million of the former in a single step thins the claims stacked in front of them.
What remains unresolved is the fourth-quarter closing. It is contingent on a lender-approved assumption of the 2033 term loan, and loan assumptions are the step in transactions of this type most likely to slip. Until that closes, the company keeps both the buildings and the debt. More coverage of healthcare and other property sectors is on our commercial real estate page.
