Investment firm Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is offloading a portfolio of 90 senior living communities, sometimes for deep discounts compared to purchase price, according to a new story from the Wall Street Journal.
Blackstone has recently sought to sell its 9,000-unit senior living portfolio in a series of one-off transactions, according to the story, published Nov. 6. Some of the company’s communities have changed hands for discounts as low as 70% compared to original purchase price.
For example, a community in Greenville, South Carolina, that Blackstone bought for about $20 million in 2017 recently changed hands for a discount of 60% below that purchase price. The company also sold communities near Denver in Chicago and in South Florida for discounts as much as 70% below purchase.
A Wall Street Journal analysis found that Blackstone acquired 39 senior housing properties for more than $755 million between 2022 and 2025 and later sold those same properties for about $536 million, representing a 29% discount over the original purchase price. The publication noted that Blackstone sold an additional five properties “for less than the loans that were taken out on them.”
In a statement to Senior Housing News, a representative for Blackstone said that the properties existed as part of a $33.5 billion fund “that has nearly doubled investors’ capital” but were negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Blackstone representative noted the firm has spent more than $100 million on the portfolio in improvements and operational investments that, according to the Wall Street Journal, included new appliances, new dining areas and work to other public spaces.
Blackstone is not the only company that has struggled to sell properties for a sum close to the cost it took to build or buy them. For example, Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra told SHN earlier this year that he passed on buying a portfolio of communities priced at $600,000 per unit in 2019 only to buy 20 of the best assets from the portfolio “at 50 cents on the dollar” years later.
Smaller deals are buoying senior living investment plans in 2025 as development remains tough to achieve at favorable costs. Senior living dealmaking reached “new heights” with a record- breaking 733 publicly announced deals between Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2025.
Community sales preceded by big buys
Blackstone upsized its senior living holdings in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic. The company bought a 64-property portfolio of communities managed by Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) in 2016 for more than $1 billion. In 2017, Welltower sold Blackstone a 26-property portfolio managed by operator Senior Lifestyle for $745 million.
According to the Wall Street Journal, much of Blackstone’s senior housing portfolio was composed of communities that carried middle-market rental rates of between $3,500 and $6,000 per month.
Senior living industry conditions quickly deteriorated in 2020 with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as occupancy rates fell at communities across the country. For example, occupancy at Blackstone’s Greenville community dipped to 41%, down from about 80% in 2017. State records reviewed by Wall Street Journal showed that regulators cited deficiencies at more than a dozen senior living communities Blackstone owns.
In recent years Blackstone had swapped out certain operators for smaller ones with regional footprints, mirroring a strategy taken by other owners of senior living communities. But “in 2022, Blackstone decided to unwind its ill-timed senior-housing bet.”
“Blackstone has absorbed a costly reminder that senior housing is among the most unforgiving corners of commercial real estate,” the Wall Street Journal story read.
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