Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) is growing via acquisitions in 2025, and the company will stay on that course so long as development of new communities stays tough.

In 2024, the Dallas-based senior living operator took on 20 new communities in states such as Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, representing about $258 million in gross assets, according to its first-quarter 2025 earnings presentation. Today, the company’s footprint spans 94 communities in 20 states, with the operator holding some or all ownership of 81 properties.

According to CEO Brandon Ribar, the company’s current strategy is a product of the fact that “development yields are nonexistent right now.”

“There really is so little development, unless it’s in the ultra-luxury side of the world, where people think they can charge $12,000 to $15,000 per month,” he said Wednesday during a panel at the RBC Capital Markets 2025 Global Healthcare Conference. “Until there’s strong global recovery and the market gets occupancy levels clear of 90% and rates continue to increase, it’s just going to be really hard to make the math work.”

He added: “We have not looked at developing anything when we can still buy really attractive levels.”

To that end, Sonida has plans to continue buying communities or ownership stakes in them where it can. In particular, the company’s leadership has targeted for acquisition communities that they believe they can turn around with operational improvements.

Blended occupancy for the 20 communities Sonida brought on in 2024 was sitting at about 70% at the time they were acquired

“In order to go into those types of opportunities, you’ve got to have conviction that your operating platform can quickly turn those around and deliver on your underwriting,” he said. “Being an owner and an operator, we think, differentiates us in what we can buy and then how quickly we can recover those types of acquisitions. It also gives us a lot of visibility into how to spend dollars within the buildings, and know what type of return profile we should expect.”

On the company’s most recent earnings call, Ribar touted the company’s operational excellence team as making a difference in that regard. The team consists of eight people who aim to reduce disruptions and barriers for acquired communities. Sonida also has created a new separate portfolio for repositioning projects, starting with a five-community portfolio in Indiana.

“We like being vertically integrated and being able to control how that asset is positioned in the market, and then take on some other more challenging assets and apply our operating platform to those,” Ribar said.

Although Sonida prefers to have a controlling stake in the communities it manages, it is undertaking some JVs in addition to more traditional third-party management. In some communities, Sonida is a “significant minority partner,” though the company always has aspirations to control its own destiny and own communities, Ribar said.