CareTrust REIT (NYSE: CTR) has acquired 45 care homes in the U.K. for approximately $1.5 billion.
The deal, valued at £1.1 billion, expands the Dana Point, California-based real estate investment trust following its entry into the U.K. market with last year’s acquisition of Care REIT for $817 million. The transaction, in partnership with LNT Care Developments Holdings Limited, gives the real estate investment trust (REIT) more exposure with which to build out a senior housing operating portfolio platform across the U.K.
With a U.S. senior housing operating portfolio and a growing slate of U.K. care homes, CareTrust has multiple active growth engines, according to President and CEO Sedgwick.
“With LNT as a partner, the speed of these two engines will be turbocharged,” Sedgwick said during an Oct. 3 webinar.
CareTrust has 15,972 units of senior living communities in the U.S. and 8,250 units for care homes in the U.K. prior to the new properties.
CareTrust management closed the first tranche of 24 care homes is Oct. 1, for approximately $764 million as of the exchange rate on Sept. 28, according to a press release. The homes were all constructed in the last two years.
The remaining 21 homes are under development and are expected to be acquired throughout 2027.
In addition to the additional properties, CareTrust has the option to acquire LNT in the future. The portfolio will join CareTrust’s SHOP platform following the homes’ stabilization, with an expected timeline of up to two years following opening. Until that occurs, the properties are leased to subsidiaries of Crystal Care, LNT’s care home operating portfolio company, under triple-net leases, the release states.
“Rather than absorbing the ramp up, we’re earning through it,” Callister said.
Once the transaction is completed in full, around 20% of CareTrust’s net operating income will come from its senior housing operating portfolio, up from the current 2%, with the remainder coming from triple-net skilled nursing and senior housing leases. Its U.K. properties will also make up 33% of its 575 properties, once the remainder of the care homes are completed and acquired.
With the deal in the U.K., senior housing will make up 40% of its overall portfolio as well as the REIT continues to shift its focus from skilled nursing. CareTrust leaders inked the company’s first SHOP deal back in 2025, and earlier this year announced it was continuing to look for more senior housing opportunities.
CareTrust is among the REITs and operators that are looking internationally for growth. In August, it closed on two transactions for a 16-property care home portfolio in the UK and two senior housing communities in the US, totaling $291 million. In August, CareTrust reported it had closed on $1.5 billion in investments in 2026, and following the most recent announcement is now up to $2.7 billion, according to the press release.
Alongside the LNT investments, CareTrust has around $40 million worth of additional investments in its pipeline for U.K. care homes, excluding the 21 under development as part of the most recent transaction. Globally, leaders at CareTrust are eying a $525 million pipeline.
“We could not be more pleased with how 2026 is finishing, and the LNT relationship is a big part of why we are just as excited about 2027,” Sedgwick said in the release. “The flywheel keeps accelerating, and the runway in front of us is as long as it’s ever been.”
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