Welltower Inc. (NYSE: WELL) is a Toledo, Ohio-based real estate investment trust that has spent five decades moving from financing nursing homes to owning housing for older adults. It reported FY2025 total revenues of $10.838 billion and 712 employees at year end.
From Health Care Fund to Welltower
Frederic D. Wolfe and Bruce Thompson founded Health Care Fund in 1970 to invest in healthcare facilities through a REIT. The company later operated as Health Care REIT, Inc. under the ticker HCN, completed a roughly $4.3 billion Sunrise Senior Living portfolio acquisition in January 2013, and renamed itself Welltower in 2015. Shankh Mitra, who joined in 2016 and ran investments, became CEO in October 2020.
How Welltower makes money
Most revenue comes from seniors housing communities held under RIDEA structures. Partner operators run the buildings, while Welltower records resident fees as revenue and keeps the operating profit after management fees. In FY2025 resident fees and services were $8.453 billion, rental income from leased properties was $1.968 billion, and interest income was $246 million.
The 2025 reset
On October 27, 2025, Welltower announced $23 billion of transactions. About $14 billion went to acquisitions spanning more than 700 seniors housing communities, including a Barchester Healthcare portfolio in the UK valued at about $6.86 billion (£5.2 billion). It also agreed to sell an 18 million square foot outpatient medical portfolio for about $7.2 billion. In April 2026 it closed the ~$2.95 billion (C$4.1 billion) pro rata purchase of 38 Amica Senior Lifestyles communities in Canada.
Recent results
For the second quarter of 2026, Welltower reported revenue of about $3.54 billion, normalized FFO of $1.60 per diluted share and 20.5% same-store NOI growth in its seniors housing operating portfolio. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 2.99x, and the board raised the quarterly dividend 15% to $0.85.
