It looks as if the first quarter (1Q) might’ve been the calm before the storm when it comes to MOB sales.

In 2020, things are certainly changing a mile a minute. But let's take a look back to 2019 and the investors who most actively acquired MOBs. Welltower takes the title acquiring $2.2 billion throughout the year, followed by MB Real Estate, Montecito and Anchor Health Properties.

Based on planned projects, a slow down in starts in the beginning of this year was expected. But for those scheduled starts, even into March and April, projects moved forward with few exceptions. Projects scheduled to open, however, have a different story.

verall, the report shows little impact from the Covid-19 pandemic. The chart below shows key aggregate same-store year over year growth rates for key MOB metrics.

At a time when MOB sales have slowed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reassuring to see a good-sized transaction take place in recent weeks.

Despite mounting stay-at-home orders and market turbulence throughout the month of March, medical office building sales ended the quarter up from a year ago. Want access to data as it happens? Subscribe to Revista to search building sales as soon as Revista Research enters them in our Transaction Comps tool.

Revista has developed 2 short surveys in response to the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on your business. One survey is geared towards owners and managers of medical real estate and the other is geared towards investors and those involved in the investing in medical real estate.

A little over a month ago things were business as usual within the world of healthcare real estate. The Revista Medical Real Estate Investment Forum had just wrapped up with healthy growth in attendance and many attendees were speaking of another year ahead of continued growth in transaction volumes.

Through Q3 of 2019, there was some speculation about whether the total MOB sales volume for the year would top the $11 billion threshold for the fifth straight time.