The coming year should yield more opportunities for LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) to invest in and acquire senior living communities.

The Westlake Village, California-based real estate investment trust (REIT) had an active year in 2023 by completing about $262 million in investments and selling $77 million worth of assets.

Included in that total was a portfolio of 10 “non-revenue generating” assisted living communities temporarily assigned to ALG Senior in 2022. The REIT in the first quarter of 2024 sold seven of the properties and transitioned three others to new operating partners.

The company also in the quarter sold a 60-unit assisted living community in Florida for $4.5 million and offloaded its joint-venture interest in a 110-unit assisted living community in Wisconsin for $23.1 million.

Now, the company is looking to keep the momentum going this year by investing in properties that further long-term growth, according to President and CEO Wendy Simpson. She has previously noted that the current economic landscape – in particular, billions of dollars of loans coming due this year and next – favors REITs like LTC.

“We are evaluating multiple investment opportunities and are confident we have both the bandwidth and resources necessary to strategically allocate capital to enhance our portfolio and achieve the best risk adjusted returns for our shareholders,” Simpson said during an earnings call with investors and analysts Tuesday. “The seniors housing and care industry is on a promising upturn after setbacks related to Covid, [and] thanks to favorable demographic trends, improving margins and rising occupancy rates, all signs point to a more robust market.”

The company has a portfolio that includes 194 properties in 26 states, about half of which are senior living communities. That “smaller asset base makes it easier to drive growth because smaller investments can contribute meaningful accretion,” Simpson said.

“We can achieve significant growth without making a large-scale transformative investment,” she added.

Looking ahead, the REIT is seeing more opportunities to invest in private-pay senior living communities, according to Co-President and Chief Investment Officer Clint Malin.

“Currently the inbound skews towards senior loans, construction loans, [mezzanine loans] and preferred equity investments,” Malin said. “These loan maturities that are coming due, we think that will be an opportunity for us to actually look at equity investments and do sale-leasebacks as well as joint ventures.”

Looking ahead, Malin noted that inflation and banks being choosy about new lending opportunities remain “somewhat of a wildcard.”

“Regardless, we are building our pipeline with interesting opportunities that vary by financing, vehicle, property type, operator and size,” he said.

LTC’s share price rose nearly 2% Tuesday to end the trading day at $33.10 per share.