Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) has a senior living portfolio that now is almost a third larger than it was at the start of 2024, with operational momentum trending in the right direction now in 2025, according to CEO Brandon Ribar.

Throughout 2024, Sonida added 20 communities to its investment portfolio and 23 communities to its management portfolio, in the process growing its number of senior living units by 30%. Alongside the portfolio growth, the Dallas, Texas-based company notched a 19% increase in same store growth with 26% growth in net operating income adjusted for tax credits. That growth is largely attributable to the acquired communities, which carried higher resident rates. 

The company’s big goals in 2025 include using its regional density to its advantage. The company also is using business intelligence and third-party technology tools to improve its operating performance, Ribar said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call with investors and analysts Monday.

That approach netted Sonida 15% higher lead volume and 11% higher tour volume in the fourth quarter of 2024 versus 4Q23 year over year, “leading to positive net move ins during the traditionally slower months of January and February in 2025,” Ribar said during the call.

While the operator’s weighted occupancy rates are at 86.4%, Ribar told SHN he is confident in Sonida’s ability to bring its newest, low occupancy communities up to 80% before the end of the year.

Sonida CEO Brandon Ribar said the operator was “really pleased with what we were able to buy throughout 2024,” and it is on the lookout for more such opportunities to grow in 2025 as development remains tough to pencil out.

“What makes us optimistic is that if you take that portfolio of new assets and you accelerate the growth on it, not only are you going to get good overall occupancy improvement in 2025 but there’s the opportunity to get really strong margin improvement as well, both in the total dollars in terms of net operating income [and] the percentage of year over year growth,” Ribar told Senior Housing News.

Sonida’ has a total of 94 communities within its portfolio. Its stock price is $24.48, up 3.9% from the previous close.

Taking momentum into 2025

Like many other senior living operators in 2025, Sonida believes it can drive a better net operating income (NOI) margin in 2025 through occupancy gains.

Sonida’s plan to increase occupancy centers on expanding on its network of local referral partners and resources, alongside sharing resources for the sales, operations and clinical aspects of the community from its other communities when needed.

Sonida has also slowly started shifting toward a dedicated in-house marketing team rather than relying on third-party referrals, which resulted in “good year-over-year growth” for leads and tours in November and December, Ribar said.

Since moving away from third-party referral providers in 2024, Sonida has continued to work with national aggregators such as A Place for Mom. And Ribar noted the company has seen success with local referral businesses that have stronger relationships with the local market. 

“Move-ins driven by digital marketing enhancements, including website architecture changes, updated paid search strategy and greater scrutiny over third party listings have significantly outpaced the change in paid move-ins from third party aggregators, leading to a reduction in referral fees year over year,” Ribar said during the company’s earnings call.

Sonida also adjusted its Medicaid policy in Indiana due to issues the state is working through that has resulted in slower Medicaid approvals. Moving forward Sonida is going to focus on acquiring private pay communities in the region, though it is working with the Indiana Health Care Association to try and streamline the process for residents trying to get their benefits.

Ribar noted Sonida has spent capital within its Indiana communities to ensure they are “really competitive” for the private pay market in the state. While Medicaid is a “low percentage” of Sonida’s revenue, it is keeping an eye on the proposed changes from the Trump administration.

“It’s an area that we’re paying attention to,” Ribar said. “Even though we have a very low percentage of Medicaid revenue, a bigger chunk of it is in Indiana, so we’ve got to be really aware of what’s going on.”

Looking ahead to the remainder of 2025, Ribar is optimistic regarding the sheer number of deals available right now, stating he has seen more in the first months of the year than were available for the same time period in 2024. He is also hoping the strengths on display from Sonida being an owner and operator in the space will continue to bring in investors.

Among those strengths, he said, are being able to know where money needs to be invested in both the physical communities and the technology that help with resident outcomes and business performance.

“We can underwrite investments as the future operator with a real clear knowledge of how we’re going to get in and change the profile of the business,” he said. “It gives us more comfort around buying communities that have underperformed or that maybe were recently launched and never quite got to occupancy levels that were where the owner wanted it.”

The benefits from being an owner and operator were on display when Sonida acquired a community in Ohio in May 2024, Ribar said. Upon its acquisition, the company was able to share resources from surrounding communities it owned, such as bringing in a neighboring executive director or sales teams that were already familiar with the surrounding market to bring in strong lead volume.

“Even though we bought the community with occupancy in the, you know, kind of low- to mid-40s percent wise, we’ve already seen really good recovery in that building,” Ribar said. “We feel like we can get that community up close to 80% in just over a year’s time.”

Ribar added he continues to be optimistic about the overall outlook for Sonida’s performance throughout 2025.

“I just think that we’re optimistic that 2025 can be an even stronger year for us than 2024, and the opportunity to marry best practices within our portfolio of communities that we’ve had over the long term with the needs of the new communities that we’ve purchased really over the last eight months is something that’s exciting for us,” he said.