Welltower raised its full-year earnings outlook for the second consecutive quarter after occupancy in its senior housing communities climbed above 90%, the health care real estate investment trust said in its third-quarter results released Oct. 26, 2026. The Toledo, Ohio-based REIT now expects normalized funds from operations (FFO) of $6.47 to $6.53 per diluted share for 2026, up from the $6.36 to $6.44 range it gave in July.
Normalized FFO β a cash-flow measure REITs use in place of earnings that strips out depreciation and one-time items β came to $1.67 a share in the third quarter, up 24.6% from $1.34 a year earlier. Net income attributable to common stockholders was $0.54 a share, compared with $0.41, and total revenue rose to $3.72 billion from $2.69 billion, according to the company’s income statement.
Senior housing occupancy reaches 90.2%
The growth again came from the seniors housing operating portfolio, in which Welltower owns the properties and shares in the operating results rather than collecting fixed rent. Same-store net operating income in that segment rose 21.0% from a year earlier, after 20.5% growth in the second quarter. Across the whole portfolio, same-store NOI grew 15.8%.
The company’s supplemental report shows what is behind the number. In the 1,052 operating communities in the same-store pool, occupancy averaged 90.2% in the third quarter, up from 87.0% a year earlier β a gain of 320 basis points. Revenue per occupied room rose 5.3%, to $6,066 a month, while the NOI margin widened by 310 basis points to 31.7%. Same-store revenue in the segment rose 9.1%.
In its U.S. operating portfolio, total occupancy was 89.1%, up from 86.6% in the third quarter of 2025, according to the supplement. Welltower’s senior housing also extends to the United Kingdom and Canada, where occupancy was 84.8% and 89.6%, respectively.
For the full year, Welltower now expects same-store NOI in the operating segment to grow about 20.25% to 21.75%, and total-portfolio same-store NOI to grow 15.0% to 16.25%.
$21 billion of investments this year
Acquisitions remain the other half of the story. The company said it has closed or is under contract to close $21.0 billion of pro rata gross investments in 2026, excluding development funding: $13.3 billion completed through Sept. 30 and $7.7 billion closed or under contract since quarter-end. Investments not yet closed remain subject to customary conditions.
In the third quarter alone it completed $4.1 billion of investments, including development funding, among them $2.7 billion across 43 seniors housing properties. The quarterly highlights in the supplement list more than 30 individual transactions, with a median size of $38 million.
It has also been selling. Third-quarter dispositions and loan repayments totaled $484 million, including 25 outpatient medical properties sold for $139 million and seven seniors housing properties for $145 million. Year to date, dispositions and loan repayments total $4.1 billion. The company expects about $1.9 billion of further disposition proceeds over the next 12 months at a blended yield of 6.5%. That pruning has included leased properties: earlier this month, Brookdale Senior Living agreed to buy 30 communities it leases from Welltower for $290 million.
Balance sheet and dividend
Welltower reported net debt of 3.02 times adjusted EBITDA at Sept. 30 and about $9.5 billion of available liquidity. Net debt equaled 9.2% of consolidated enterprise value. In July it sold C$1.15 billion of Canadian-dollar senior notes with a weighted-average coupon of 3.95%, and the company said it sourced more than $4 billion of capital globally during the quarter.
The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.85 a share, payable Nov. 19, 2026, to holders of record on Nov. 10. A year earlier the quarterly dividend was $0.74. The company said it will be its 222nd consecutive quarterly cash dividend. The payout equals 51% of normalized FFO, down from 55% a year earlier.
The results arrive against a constrained supply backdrop for the sector. NIC MAP has estimated that senior housing will need more than $1 trillion of investment by 2050 even as construction has dropped sharply, as RealtyWire reported in August. On our reading, Welltower’s numbers show how that imbalance is showing up in one large owner’s results: rising occupancy and room rates in existing buildings, plus an acquisition program funded at leverage near three times EBITDA. Management scheduled a conference call to discuss the results for 9 a.m. ET on Oct. 27.
More on REITs and senior housing is in RealtyWire’s Commercial Real Estate section.
