Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Chartwell Q4 and year-end 2025 Results Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. I will now hand the call over to Vlad Volodarski, Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell. Vlad, please go ahead.
Thank you, Hillary. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. There is a slide presentation to accompany this conference call available on our website at chartwell.com under the Investor Relations tab. Joining me are Karen Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Jeffrey Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Boulakia, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Legal Officer, and Gordon Chiu, Chief Technology Officer. Before we begin, I direct you to the cautionary statements on S lide 2, because during this call, we will make statements containing forward-looking information and non-GAAP and other financial measures.
Our MD&A and other securities filings contain information about the assumptions, risks, and uncertainties inherent in such forward-looking statements and details of such non-GAAP and other financial measures. More specifically, I direct you to the disclosures in our 2025 MD&A under the heading Risks and Uncertainties and Forward-Looking Information for a discussion of risks and uncertainties.
These documents can be found on our website or on the SEDAR+ website. Turning to Slide 3, 2025 marked the successful completion of our five-year strategy. Our teams achieved all strategic goals in resident satisfaction, employee engagement, and occupancy. Same-property occupancy reached 95.2% in December, reflecting both strong demand and outstanding execution by our teams across the country.
As shown on Slide 4, 2025 was also another exceptional year operationally and financially. Same-property average occupancy increased 480 basis points. Same-property adjusted NOI increased 18.4%, and FFO increased 40.8%. These results were broad-based and consistent across our operating platforms. These results are a powerful reflection of the dedication, care, and professionalism of our people. Across all aspects of our business, our teams introduced new programs, tested ideas, shared learnings, and scaled what worked.
At the same time, we continued to invest in technology and management processes to simplify work, improve insight, and support better decision-making at the residence level. What stands out is the culture behind the performance: teams staying focused on customer experience, taking accountability for outcomes, remaining curious and innovative, and working together across functions. We are tremendously grateful to our teams for their excellent work that produced these outstanding results. With that, I'll pass the mic to my partners. Karen will walk you through the operational initiatives, Jeff will cover our financial performance, and Jonathan will provide you an update on our growth and portfolio optimization initiatives. Karen?
Thanks, Vlad. Moving on to Slide 5, we had another strong quarter of leasing activity with a positive net permanent move-in to permanent move-out of 276 units and continued growth in occupancy in all four provinces. Our closing ratios in Q4 were significantly higher at 22% initial contacts to permanent move-ins, compared to our typical closing ratio of 15%, as prospects took advantage of 2025 rates before market increases came into effect in January. The outbreak season started relatively early, it peaked in late December and has been trending down ever since. Our winter dip is quite similar to 2025 and in line with our expectations. We held our first open house event in select properties in January prior to the very cold spell in order to add to our pipeline of qualified prospects.
In addition to this event, we continued to implement property-specific marketing strategies, as well as numerous corporate initiatives. This includes the recent introduction of an AI-powered chatbot on our website, representing the first of its kind application in Canadian seniors housing at the individual property level. The chatbot provides prospects with a new always-on channel to engage, receive property-specific information, and convert into booked tours.
In Q4, we held training sessions across the country for over 200 of our sales personnel. The focus was on building proactive sales behaviors, strengthening personal brand and digital presence, increasing confidence with care-related conversations, and understanding how AI influences the prospect journey. We also launched a new, more competitive sales commission program, which came into effect in January, as well as an automated commission payment process.
In terms of expense control, we reduced our same property staffing agency costs by 57% in 2025 compared to 2024, through our continued focus on recruitment and retention activities. Turning to Slide 6, Chartwell's Wish of a Lifetime continued to contribute positively to earned media through, sorry, this quarter through human interest storytelling that highlighted residents' experiences and acts of kindness. One notable example is the story of Angie Carnegie from Aurora, who wished to see her original play staged and brought to life for the first time. The story was covered in local media and included attendance from local dignitaries, including the mayor.
Finally, in Q4, the operations teams integrated three new properties, two in Quebec, Chartwell Azalis and Chartwell Panorama, both of which are large 30 and 31 story residences in beautiful locations in the greater Montreal area, as well as The Edward in Calgary, our first boutique living property. We also opened Edgewater by Chartwell in December, a 155 unit independent living property in Nanaimo, BC, and have already welcomed the first 30 residents, with an additional seven due to move in shortly. I'll now turn it over to Jeff to take you through our financial results.
Great. Thank you, Karen. As shown on Slide 7, in Q4 2025, net income was CAD 7.2 million, compared to net income of CAD 3.5 million in Q4 2024. FFO grew to CAD 81.2 million in Q4 2025, an increase of 40.9% compared to Q4 2024. Our reported FFO does not include CAD 2.5 million, or CAD 0.008 per unit of income guarantees related to recently acquired properties.
Q4 2025 FFO growth benefited from higher adjusted NOI of CAD 28.8 million, higher adjusted interest income of CAD 1.5 million, and higher other lease revenue of CAD 1.2 million, partially offset by higher adjusted finance costs of CAD 3.3 million, higher G&A expenses of CAD 2.4 million, and lower management fees of CAD 2.2 million. In Q4 2025, our same property occupancy increased 430 basis points to 94.7%, and our same property adjusted NOI increased CAD 11 million, or 16.9%. We also had an 11.6% increase in our NOI per occupied suite. In 2025, net income was CAD 29.5 million, compared to CAD 22.4 million in 2024.
FFO grew to CAD 278 million, an increase of 40.8% compared to 2024. Our reported FFO does not include CAD 8.2 million, or CAD 0.028 per unit of income guarantees related to recently acquired properties. 2025 FFO growth benefited from higher adjusted NOI of CAD 109.8 million, higher adjusted interest income of CAD 3.7 million, higher other lease revenue of CAD 2.2 million, and lower depreciation of PP&E and amortization of intangible assets used for administrative purposes of CAD 0.5 million. Partially offset by higher adjusted finance costs of CAD 20 million, lower management fees of CAD 7.6 million, higher G&A expenses of CAD 7.1 million, and lower other income of CAD 0.9 million.
For 2025, our same property occupancy increased 480 basis points to 92.8%, and our same property adjusted NOI increased CAD 45.7 million or 18.4%. Our same property NOI per occupied suite increased by 12.2% during the year. Slide 8 summarizes our same property operating results for each platform. All of our platforms posted occupancy gains in Q4 2025 compared to Q4 2024, and all are operating above 90% occupancy, which has positively impacted our results. Our Western Canada platform, same property adjusted NOI increased CAD 3 million or 14.4%. Our Ontario platform, same property adjusted NOI increased CAD 6.2 million or 17.1%, and our Quebec platform, same property NOI, adjusted NOI increased CAD 1.8 million or 22.8%.
Turning to Slide 9. At February 26, 2026, liquidity amounted to CAD 483.8 million, which included CAD 88.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and CAD 394.9 million of borrowing capacity on our credit facilities. During the year ended December 31st, 2025, we raised total gross proceeds of CAD 720.5 million of equity through our ATM programs at an average price of CAD 18.52, which helped support our transaction activity. We continue to improve our leverage metrics, with interest coverage ratio growing to 3.5 x, and our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio declining to 6.9 x. We also continue to improve our financing flexibility and have grown our unencumbered asset base to CAD 2.1 billion.
For the remainder of 2026, our debt maturities include CAD 209.6 million of mortgages, with a weighted average interest rate of 2.99%. As of February 26, 2026, we estimate the 10-year CMHC insured mortgage rate to be approximately 3.85%, and the five-year unsecured debenture rate to be approximately 3.88%. Yesterday, our board approved a 2% increase in our monthly distributions from CAD 0.051 per unit to CAD 0.052 per unit. The increase will be effective for the March 31st, 2026 distribution, which is payable on April 15, 2026. I will now turn the call to Jonathan to discuss our recent acquisitions and portfolio optimization activities.
Thanks, Jeff. We continue to execute on our portfolio strategy of enhancing our asset base to generate increased quality NOI. I'll highlight some of the deals that we completed in Q4 2025, as pictured on Slide 10. On October 1st, 2025, we acquired a 449-suite retirement residence, Les Tours Angrignon, in Montreal, Quebec, for CAD 88.5 million. On November 3rd, we acquired Residence L'Aubier in Quebec, which was developed by our development partner in Quebec, Batimo, for CAD 128.2 million.
On November third, we acquired Résidence Panorama, a 238-suite waterfront residence in Laval, Quebec, for $76 million. At 31 stories, Chartwell Panorama is the tallest residence in our portfolio. On December 1st, we acquired Residence Azalis, a 334-suite, 30-story waterfront residence in Repentigny, Quebec, for a purchase price of $111 million. On December 2nd, we acquired The Edgewater Retirement Residence in Nanaimo, BC, for a purchase price of $102.7 million. This waterfront new property was purchased pursuant to a forward purchase agreement. On December 15th, 2025, we acquired a 90-suite boutique residence, The Edward, in Calgary, Alberta, for a purchase price of $53 million.
Finally, on December 18th, we acquired the remaining 15% ownership interest in Résidence Légende in Greenfield Park, Quebec, from Batimo for CAD 17.9 million. As you can see, in 2025, we continued to grow our portfolio with over CAD 1.7 billion of completed and announced acquisitions. We continue to evaluate several interesting opportunities to grow and enhance the quality of our real estate portfolio.
We remain disciplined in how we approach underwriting, diligence, and integration of our new acquisitions to deliver enhanced services to the residents, mitigate disruption to operations, and achieve our required investment returns. We are also engaged in discussions with local and national developers across the country to restart our development program and create a meaningful pipeline of state-of-the-art assets to bring in our portfolio.
We will purchase such developments in a prudent manner, with a preference for off-balance sheet development similar to our arrangement in Quebec. Further to this initiative, we announced the development of the 111-suite Chartwell Kingsview Retirement Residence in Calgary, with an advance of CAD 4.5 million of the total committed CAD 6.5 million mezzanine financing to local developers. Chartwell will be the operations manager of the project and will have a call option to acquire the residence on stabilization.
The project is in an affluent residential area of Calgary, in proximity to various neighborhood amenities, and will feature self-contained AL apartments and an attractive amenity package. As I've noted, we have invested significant financial and management capital pursuing acquisitions in line with this strategy and have initiated new development projects to support a strong pipeline of future property growth.
We have also identified properties within our portfolio that no longer fit this core strategic focus due to their location, size, age, and/or service offering. We entered into a definitive agreement to sell one of these non-core properties in Ottawa for CAD 49 million. We intend to pursue dispositions of some or all of these properties as market conditions allow, with proceeds expected to be used to support future development and acquisition activity that is in line with Chartwell's current strategy. I'll turn it back to Vlad to wrap up.
Thank you, Jonathan. Turning to Slide 11, we are entering the next phase of Chartwell evolution with clarity and confidence. Our 2026, 2028 strategy is focused on generating robust FFO per unit growth through exceptional resident experiences, empowered teams, a well-established agile management platform, and a prominent Chartwell brand, driving market-leading occupancies across a growing and renewing portfolio of community-tailored residences.
From a performance perspective, our targets are clear. We're focused on maintaining weighted average occupancy above 95%, growing revenue per occupied suite by more than 4%, controlling costs, maintaining strong balance sheet capacity, and executing approximately CAD 2 billion of acquisitions and developments, funded in part by approximately CAD 1 billion of dispositions through 2028. Underpinning all of this is our leading management platform, strong core company culture, and most importantly, our people.
Our success depends on teams who put residents first, take ownership of outcomes, stay curious and innovative, simplify and improve how we work, and collaborate across the organization. These guiding principles are not aspirational; they're embedded in how we do business every day. With a proven strategy, strong industry fundamentals, and exceptional teams, I'm confident in Chartwell's ability to continue delivering strong operating performance and long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Chartwell culture manifests itself in our results, and it lives in our stories. I will now close our prepared remarks with a story from one of our residences, as pictured on Slide 12. Shortly after Kathy and her husband, Mike, moved into Chartwell Thunder Bay, their plans to settle into their new community were disrupted by an unexpected and serious health crisis.
Kathy was hospitalized with a condition that required intensive treatment and an extended period of care away from the residence. Throughout this difficult time, our team stayed closely connected to Kathy and Mike, checking in regularly, offering reassurance, and supporting them through a period filled with uncertainty. When Kathy's condition stabilized enough for her to leave the hospital briefly, the team looked for a way to help her reconnect with life beyond treatment.
Knowing how meaningful music was to Kathy, they worked with the local community to arrange for her to attend a Christmas concert by Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Johnny Reid. It was Kathy's first outing since being hospitalized. The evening included not only the performance, but a personal moment with the artist and a dedication made especially for her. This may sound like a small gesture, but it reflects something fundamental for Chartwell.
Always a resident-first approach, delivered by people who truly know those they serve, and who are empowered to act with compassion and purpose. These are the moments that build trust, reinforce why our work matters, and quietly brings our responsibility to life. Thank you for your attention this morning. We would now be pleased to answer your questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please pick up your handset when asking a question, and if you're muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Lorne Kalmar from Desjardins. Lorne, your line is now open.
Congrats on a great finish to a great year. Just on the development side, looks like you guys reintroduced a disclosure we haven't seen since the early innings of COVID. Obviously a lot of talk about developments ramping up here in the next little bit with you guys and more broadly. I was just wondering, over maybe the next two years, you know, what do you expect, if you can give us a range, in terms of annual development spend? I know obviously there's a preference for off balance sheet, just trying to get an idea of, you know, where your heads are at in this regard.
Thanks, Lorne. We have a couple of projects that are ongoing already, and those are on our balance sheet. We have two developments in Montreal area. Those are additions to the existing residences, and, as I said, those are on balance sheet. We look to really invest in development, mostly off balance sheet, with options to purchase the properties when they get to stabilized occupancy. There may be a few additions that we will execute on our balance sheet, but the majority of the development that we expect to conduct over the next couple of years will be off balance sheet.
Okay, that's a really good color. Thank you. Maybe just sticking on the development side with the, with the ramp up, is that a reflection of just a great opportunity to develop, or is it also a reflection of a declining acquisition opportunity set?
Well, for us, it's strategic to grow the portfolio with high quality, newer assets. We continue to see very interesting, as Jonathan pointed out, acquisition opportunities, and we're working through a few right now. With those, we never know whether we're going to be the ultimate purchaser of the properties or not. There is some competition always for high-quality properties.
Canadian market is not very large, and especially when people focus on properties types that we're focusing on, you know, newer, larger, more efficient and larger urban markets, it becomes even smaller. Our development strategy is really the one that is more in our control, where we're trying to build our own pipeline of future acquisitions that will not be dependent of the availability of somebody else's product in the market.
Okay, maybe just one last one. I know it's still early days in terms of seeing this next development cycle kick off, but are there any markets where you're concerned at this point that we might see a, you know, an oversupply or an overbuild, you know, in terms of just projects that are sitting at the early stages of development or permits?
At this point, no. It's hard to tell. As you know, it takes at least two years to build a building from the time you put the shovel in the ground. So it's too early to speak about that because we have not really seen any meaningful construction starts yet. I think everybody expects that we will see some in 2026. I also want to remind everybody that demand's been growing by 4.5% per year for the last four years, and will continue at that pace for the next 20 years. It's hard to imagine that the industry will be able to build that much product to really catch up and exceed that demand that continues to grow. Some markets probably could be disrupted for a short period of time. At this point, it's hard to tell which ones are they're going to be.
Okay, thank you so much. I'll turn it back.
Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from Jonathan Kelcher, from TD Cowen. Jonathan, your line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning. First question, just on the outlook for 2026. Same property occupancy, just to maintain an average of 95%. Is there any new supply hitting some of your markets that might impact some of that same property occupancy?
Nothing. There are some LTC openings that could have some impact, but we're not seeing a lot of new retirement residence competition opening up.
You guys are just being a little conservative on that?
Well, you know-
Would you say?
Jonathan, we are in this uncharted territory, right? Where it is...
Yep
... really hard to predict, the potential for occupancy growth because we've never been at this, not just Chartwell, the industry wide, never been at these high levels of occupancy.
Mm-hmm.
It's not like we can point to, you know, five years ago, everybody was at 98%, that's achievable. For us, we continue to focus on great resident experience, great sales processes, marketing processes, and we hope that we can exceed the 95% occupancy, but we will see by how much.
... and we still,
Right
want to obviously have our move-ins exceed our move-outs with just given the higher turnover in the senior sector compared to other housing sectors.
Yep, fair enough. I was just trying to get, is there anything out there that you're seeing that might stop just this sort of general increase for the industry? Secondly, just on the rent growth for 4%, how would that break down on what you're seeing on when units turn over versus what you're pushing through on renewals?
Our renewal pricing strategy has and continues to be, inflation plus 1% or 2%. We're matching the cost increases in the properties with the rate increase. On turnover, we're seeing mid to high single digits, and in some markets, even low single digit rate increases.
Double digits.
Low double digit rate increases, sorry.
Okay. Shouldn't that work out to higher than 4% then overall? If you're getting a third at 8% or 9%, and then the other two thirds at 3%-4%?
It might. We continue seeing the impact of the incentives that have been granted throughout 2025. You'll see our occupancies increase significantly in 2025, and there have been some incentives that were put in place to achieve that occupancy growth. The full year impact of those incentives will be felt in 2026, and so that will suppress a little bit the overall blended rate growth.
Okay, fair enough. Just lastly, like Ballycliffe, haven't talked about that one in a while. It's up running complete. Would that be something you'd expect to sell this year?
Yes.
Yes.
Ballpark pricing?
We're not yet ready to announce.
Okay, I think it-
It, we-
Okay.
Well, it's still in progress, so as soon as we can talk about it, we will.
Okay, thanks. I'll turn it back.
Thank you very much for your question. Your next question comes from Tom Callaghan from BMO. Tom, your line is now open.
Thanks. Morning. Maybe just to start on the acquisition side and building off some of Lorne's questions there. Can you just talk about what you're seeing in terms of pricing and competition? You know, maybe relative to 12 months ago. I think over the course of 2025, we've obviously seen some cap rate compression. Just given the outlook and underlying supply-demand fundamentals, like, would you expect to continue to see tightening on pricing with the balance of 2026? Or do you think it's kind of more stabilized?
We have seen a little cap rate compression. I think it's probably stabilizing now. We're still seeing a lot of opportunities in the market, both one-offs and portfolio level. In terms of the market, it is somewhat competitive, but we think we have a competitive advantage, being our reputation in the market as a credible buyer. We do a lot of underwriting work really early on in the process. We give credible offers early on in the process that we stick by. Vendors, the feedback we're getting is that vendors like working with us because of our experience, our experience underwriting, our credibility, our speed of execution, and our ability to integrate properties into our platform effectively with as little disruption to residents and staff as possible. That kind of gives us, we feel, a competitive advantage, but it is a competitive process.
Got it. That's helpful, Jonathan. Maybe, I think you referenced some interesting opportunities in prepared marks. Would some of those encompass kind of more the portfolio type deals, or is it mostly one-off buildings?
We're seeing both.
Got it.
One-off.
Maybe the last one. Sorry.
No, go ahead.
Yeah. Maybe the last one from, for me is just, you did note in your 2026 outlook there, the expectation for margins to expand year-over-year. Can you just maybe talk about some goalposts in terms of the quantum of that expansion?
Yeah. We do think that we should have margin expansion again in 2026, and it still be in the low 40% range, where we think there's an opportunity to move that up into the low to mid 40% range as we continue to grow rate above operating expenses.
Perfect. Thanks, Jeff. I'll turn it back.
Thank you for your question. Our next question comes from the line of Himanshu Gupta from Scotiabank. Himanshu, your line is now open.
Thank you, good morning. On expected rent growth of 4%, do you think there was a view that once we get to that 95% occupancy, you know, cross a bridge to get there, that blended rent growth could become like 5%? Maybe now, you know, like the affordability angle is coming up, it's not just about full capacity, but there's an affordability as well. That's why, you know, 4% is the right number and not the 5% you can achieve. Fair to say that?
Well, the strategy statement that we put out and the metrics around it says above 4% growth. 4% marks, in our minds at least, the bottom of what is possible for the next three years. As Jeff pointed out, we are continue to be measured in the rent increases that we put through for our existing residents. They will be tied more to the overall inflation and our cost, labor, food, and others. Then market rents, we do think can grow by high single digits in the next three years, given the supply demand dynamics.
Okay, thank you. you know, talking about incentives, you did mention that incentive coming down. Can you elaborate, what is it now and where it can go?
Himanshu. It's approximately 5% of revenue right now, and they come down. There's a number of recurring incentives that were used over the 2024 and 2025, and those roll off or burn off with turnover. It's hard to predict exact resident turnover, but we expect them to grow this year as we have the full year impact of the 2025 incentives, and then start really burning off in 2027, 2028.
Okay. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. Turning attention towards the acquisition activity, The Edward Calgary acquisition, what kind of cap rate are you expecting there? Don't remember, you know, you guys doing anything in Alberta in the last couple of years, is that like a focus market now?
Sorry, is Calgary a focus market?
I mean, do you expect to be more active in Alberta, Jonathan? I mean, obviously, you were active in the other three provinces quite a bit in the last couple of years.
Yeah, we.
Is Alberta fitting very well now?
For sure. We consider Alberta and Calgary, specifically in Alberta, to be core markets and areas of focus for future growth, both on the acquisition side and on the development side.
And-
The cap rate would be, you know, consistent with, you know, published guideline cap rates that we see in publications. We don't normally disclose the actual cap rates that we pay, it would be in the high 5%s, low 6%s cap rate.
Okay. Would you say, is there like a spread between Alberta versus Ontario, or is it quite complex?
Alberta and Ontario, I think, would be relatively similar in terms of cap rates.
Okay. Okay, thank you. Maybe just last question, since I have you, Jonathan, here. You did mention about some capital compression you have seen. For this development cycle to continue, do you need to see more capital compression from here, or whatever you have achieved is enough to bring on more supply?
Well, we're seeing some developments pencil out now with the current cap rates and current expectations on rate. As Lad mentioned, most of our development is what we call off-balance sheet, so we're gonna be buying these at prevailing cap rates and fair market value when they're stabilized or on construction completion. If and when that happens, we'll be paying whatever the appropriate price is.
Okay. Okay, fair enough. Just one last one, that Ontario, in that portfolio acquisition, when are you expecting to close? Is it the CMHC approval which is taking forever?
Well, we are still waiting for third-party approvals, yes. We would expect to close in Q2.
Q2, okay. Okay. Thank you, and I'll get back.
Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from Sairam Srinivas from ATB Cormark Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Thank you, Operator. Good morning, gents. Just looking for the quarter, and I might have missed this, but do you guys guide for the acquisition or disposition number for 2026?
I'm sorry, can you repeat that?
Just looking at your commentary on acquisitions and dispositions, I'm not sure if I missed it, but do you have a number for 2026 in terms of end goal?
No, we provided a strategic plan for the next three years of a target of CAD 2 billion of acquisitions and CAD 1 billion of dispositions of non-core properties. We don't set an annual goal or plan. It says market conditions allow, we will sell and buy as we see opportunities to do so.
Okay. John, maybe going back to your comments on, you know, the competition you're seeing in the acquisition market, can you give the color in terms of the kind of firms you're seeing competing over there? Is it more, you know, like, probably more funds competing or more operators as well?
We're seeing, you know, the typical competition for assets. We're seeing competition from domestic owners and operators, like us, We're also seeing, you know, U.S. capital coming into Canada as it has been doing so for the last decade. We just see more of that, but nothing particularly new.
That's good, color. Maybe just look at the developments. Vlad, I know you mentioned that, you know, thinking about on-balance sheet versus, you know, the option and developments. When you historically look at, you know, acquiring a new project or a newly developed facility versus something that you have probably developed on-balance sheet or through your partnerships, are there advantages you've seen operationally that work better for your design builds versus those that you probably acquired to the market?
Definitely. When, when we're doing the off-balance sheet or on-balance sheet development, for that matter, we are involved from the get-go, from the site selection point to the preliminary design, the feasibility, the programming, and all the way to the finishes. We play an oversight role on the construction quality, so we know exactly what we're getting, and what we're getting at the end is exactly what we want. There is certainly a difference. We've been very fortunate in our last two years of acquisitions where we have been buying new properties, and they are great state-of-the-art properties. By and large, they're almost all newly developed properties. We've been fortunate.
As Vlad said, we want to plant the seeds for the future, where we don't know if those conditions will continue to exist. We're preparing ourselves for that potential turn in the market where we don't have those great opportunities, and so we will create them for ourselves. Yes, when we create them for ourselves, we have, I guess, more of a say in what we're ultimately going to buy.
That is great. Thanks, Jonathan, for the color. I'll turn it back.
Thank you very much for your question. Your next question comes from Giuliano Thornhill from National Bank. Your line is now open.
Hey, guys. Good day. Good morning, everyone. I just kind of wanted to start on the margins. You know, the low 40%s, 95% occupancy looks pretty achievable. Just given that occupancy last year for the same property pool was up by 480 bps, the margins were up in about 300 bps. Going forward, do you see that margin increase accelerating as we get into these higher occupancy levels?
Yeah. Good morning. I wouldn't say they would accelerate. We're already operating at the high occupancy levels. We do expect them to increase with the increase in occupancy.
Right. Okay. Then moving to the growth portfolio, I know that's, you know, higher quality, recently built. Where does something of that quality stable out to at those levels?
J ust to be clear, that portfolio includes properties where we've had a change in ownership. There's a number of properties that we, that were part of the Welltower joint venture, that are included in there as well, just for clarity. We do think that portfolio as well can get into that low to mid-40% range.
Okay. Just going back to the transaction volumes that you guys commented on earlier, how much of that is Chartwell actually interested in? Like, what's the, I guess, dollar volume, and what would Chartwell be interested in, and what's out there?
Sorry, are you asking what's the dollar value of potential acquisitions that we see?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Well, we don't typically comment on things that are in the market that we're still kind of kicking the tires on. We would expect 2026 to be, a very active year in the seniors real estate market.
Is it still going to be focusing on that kind of care light product type that you've been acquiring?
We by and large, yes, but we do like continuum of care type properties. You know, we are focused, we are looking at all the whole spectrum of care on the privately funded, on the private side. Our thought would be the more independent side with preferably some care component in the building.
Yeah. I guess the follow-up I'd ask is just: Do you think with the LTC wait lists growing and obviously higher acuity patients coming in, do you think that could impact the demand later on, even three to five years out, as more and more people come in with other issues?
We think that the demand is going to grow on all sides of the continuum of care spectrum. We think there's gonna be continuing strong demand for more independent senior apartment type of developments. There's definitely always going to be demand for care. Our team's been putting in place programs, Care Assist program in particular, that is Chartwell proprietary program on care. We have technology that helps people to deliver care, assess clients, deliver care, and bill for it.
You'll see our care revenue's been growing at a pretty robust pace for the last couple of years, and we expect that that will continue, and our properties will be set in such a way that we can accommodate people and their care need and help them to stay with us as long as they choose to.
All right. Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thank you very much for your question. Your next question comes from Pammi Bir from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning. Just coming back to maybe the Investor Day and the outlook that you presented there, yeah, as you kind of look now, 2026 and we've a few months passed, you know, has your view changed at all, either perhaps better or maybe even moderating a bit in terms of how you think about 2026? I mean, the commentary seems optimistic, but also at the same time seems perhaps conservative. Just trying to get a pulse on how you're thinking about the year relative to a few months ago.
I don't think anything's changed from a couple of months ago. We're very optimistic about our ability to continue to deliver great services to our residents and continue to grow profitability through occupancy and rental rate growth. We'll continue to focus on controlling the costs and looking to put a lot more new, innovative ideas out there in the market and test them and see what works. I don't think anything's changed from that perspective.
Okay. Then just on the total occupancy, I think you're sitting at about 93%. Maybe just expanding on one of the earlier questions, is that portfolio something you think you can get to in terms of, like, the 95% threshold this year, or will that take a little bit longer?
Well, we'll see. We might. There are some homes in that growth bucket that, you know, just Karen gave an example of Edgewater in Nanaimo that just opened in December, so it has 30, maybe +7, 37 people, 130 units. You know, for that home, it may be way too aggressive to assume, although I'm looking at Karen, she's not nodding her head. Yeah, too aggressive to assume that that will hit 95% this year. We have a few homes like that. The rest of that portfolio should be at 95% or higher.
Okay. Then maybe just coming back to the same property portfolio. You know, again, lots of good detail in terms of what you're thinking from an occupancy and margin standpoint. I mean, should we ultimately expect that, you know, in terms of organic growth, you'll be tracking close to, call it, the high single digits, low double-digit range, based on, you know, all these sort of goalposts that you've provided?
I think it is reasonable. The rental rate growth over 4%, expenses 4% or lower, and we still have some occupancy to get to 95% average that we expect to achieve this year or higher. You know, if you do that math, looks like your estimates will be about right.
Just lastly, on the dispositions, you know, you've done one deal so far this year. What does the sort of near-term pipeline look like? I'm not sure if you have stuff on the market currently, and I'm just curious if there's portfolios in there at all and what sort of NOI impact that may have if you do move forward on some additional deals.
Yeah, at this point, Pammi, we can't really talk about. These are all very preliminary transactions that are in progress. There are a few of them that we're working on, but you never know whether they're gonna be completed or not. As soon as we can talk about it, we will. But the target remains for the next three years to dispose of the non-core portfolio we value at over CAD 1 billion today.
Okay. Thanks very much. I'll turn it back.
Thank you very much for your question. Your last and final question comes from Tal Woolley, from CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning. Obviously a big year on announced acquisitions. I think it was CAD 1.7 billion of stuff that you've closed and things yet to be closed. Can you just talk a little bit about any signs of integration strain, you know, either at the corporate level or on the ground?
Well, we frankly, I was surprised of how well our teams were able to integrate these acquisitions. Pleasantly surprised, because it's not an easy task to take on properties and transition from one operator to another, especially because we were transitioning many properties from different types of operators. There are some that were managed by smaller companies, some that were managed by larger companies, and it's really been a great experience.
Hard work, but a great experience for residents and employees of these homes, and the feedback that we've been receiving. We were just recently together with the general managers from all of our homes, and those who joined us more recently couldn't have been more complimentary about the process that they and their teams and the residents went through to join the Chartwell family.
It's been a great experience, and we have not experienced any strain. We are very cognizant about the impact that the large volume of these acquisitions has on the support teams in the corporate office and the operations teams in the field, and we're making sure that there's good processes, enough resources dedicated to these transitions. There, there's definitely risk associated with it, and we're trying to manage this risk to the best of our ability. The good news is all acquisitions, or the vast majority of the acquisitions that we've done over the course of the last two years, have exceeded our expectations in terms of the financial performance.
Okay. When you take on, like, you know, that kind of volume in a year, I'm just wondering, like, can you start to go back and, like, leverage your buying power more effectively, whether it's for food or medical supplies, that kind of stuff? Like, can you get better operating synergies out of this? Is that part of the reason why, you know, we're sort of seeing your direct operating expenses, per se, start to fall?
hey, Tal. we do that, irregardless of the level of acquisition activity. just given the scale of the company, we're very focused on buying power and leveraging, the number of properties we have across the country. We think that does help in our underwriting of acquisitions, and should help to some effect on the overall buy, but wouldn't materially drive our operating expenses.
Okay. When I'm looking at that direct operating expense per occupied suite figure, if it's down year-over-year, is it down mostly because the occupancy is up so high, or are you actually seeing some operating expenses, fall?
No, they grew on an absolute basis, but because occupancy grew faster than the operating expenses, you're seeing the decline in the operating expense per occupied suite.
Got it. You know, as demand continues to pick up here, like, are you finding you've got the right suite mix, for now? Or are you finding it like, you know, you need more supportive, you know, supportive living suites or assisted living suites? How are you know, matching demand at this point in time?
Tal, most of our properties are in the independent supportive living category, which basically means that we can provide a significant amount of support and care to the residents in their suites, and that's the Care Assist program that we have with the technology that was recently implemented across the country. Those properties can accommodate people from fully independent to people who require quite a bit of care.
That's where the majority of our portfolio is, and we're very happy with that breakdown. We have some neighborhoods or wings of the properties that we designate as memory living or assisted living. Those are specifically designed areas where packages are more all-encompassing, and we have higher staffing levels to accommodate people with higher needs or specific needs, like in memory care. Generally, we're pretty happy with the breakdown that we have.
As I said, my expectation is that demand will continue to grow on both sides of the spectrum, where people will look for more independent type of accommodation for socialization purposes, and we'll continue to grow a part of our business where we provide services for people with more care needs.
Okay. Just lastly, I think, you know, the last big deal you've got to close, I think, is the Sifton portfolio. Will you, like, for this year, would you look at completing the balance of that with, the, you know, your credit facilities, or, you know, do you expect it to be through some dispositions by then or, perhaps, using the ATM?
Yes, we have a combination of some dispositions and also approximately CAD 170 million of CMHC financings underway. Between those and cash on hand, we'll be able to fund that portfolio acquisition.
Okay, that's great. Thanks very much, all.
Thank you for your questions. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Vlad Volodarski, Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell, for closing remarks.
Thank you again, everybody, for joining us. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to give any one of us a call. Goodbye.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending, and you may now disconnect.