Debra Cafaro, chairman and CEO of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR), joined Nareit in New York for a video interview at REITweek: 2019 Investor Conference.
Cafaro discussed how Ventas has positioned itself to deal with any potential shifts in the economy.
“Ventas is incredibly well-positioned because we are in a need-based, demographically-driven business and we expect the senior population to continue to grow. That supports all of our businesses in all of our verticals,” she said.
Meanwhile, Cafaro touched on the trends she is seeing in senior living starts and demographic demand. Starts improved “considerably” in the first quarter—showing a 55% improvement from their peak in 2015—Cafaro said. She added that senior living is “a great business and there’s going to be a very powerful upside, and we’re starting to see the leading indicators of that.”
Cafaro also commented on Ventas’ university-based research and innovation development pipeline, which now exceeds $1.5 billion.