Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference 2026 summary

Strategic transformation and organizational changes

• Entering a new era with recent leadership changes, including a new CEO and COO, and significant restructuring, reducing districts from 55 to 43 within months to optimize operations.

• Disposing of underperforming assets, with 19 more communities to be sold in the coming months, aiming for a fully stabilized portfolio.

• Organizational changes are now largely complete and expected to drive operational effectiveness as the company enters peak selling seasons.

Occupancy and growth drivers

• Targeting occupancy above 83% for 2026, up from 81% in 2025, with long-term benchmarks set by pre-COVID and pre-acquisition highs near 89%.

• Growth driven by demographic tailwinds (80+ population growing at 4%-5% CAGR), record-low new supply, and focused execution on low-occupancy communities.

• Network selling strategies and SWAT teams are deployed to boost occupancy, especially in underperforming locations.

• Expecting 1-3 percentage points of occupancy growth per year, with meaningful NOI and margin expansion as more communities surpass 90% occupancy.

Pricing strategy and revenue management

• Implemented high single-digit in-place rate increases in January, with low double-digit increases in highly occupied communities, leveraging pricing power.

• Pricing is managed centrally for effectiveness, using analytics and local market input, with product-type and occupancy-specific strategies.

• Higher occupancy enables premium pricing and significant EBITDA per unit growth, with top-performing communities generating up to $21,000 per unit versus $4,800 in low-occupancy sites.