Commercial Real Estate Investing

 Another sector of commercial real estate to keep a close eye on are medical practices. For years, the health care industry has been one of the fastest growing and it will remain so for decades to come. The 75 million plus baby boomers are entering their retirement years and will require medical services well into their 80s.

Although the medical industry has experienced steady growth for decades, baby boomers moving into old age means very significant ongoing growth in this expensive and highly profitable industry. Location is always important to real estate investors and medical space is no different. Medical practices are becoming more of a retail style industry with specialty practices popping up in strip mall style facilities.

Although in more of a retail setting, these private offices tend to cluster around large hospitals. Before entering this investment niche, you need to gain a firm understanding of the needs of the medical community. Naturally, new practices demand state of the art facilities. While the landlord doesn't provide the expensive medical equipment, the construction of the building must provide a positive experience for both the patients and the medical staff. Other specialty needs are floors capable of handling heavy equipment and lead lined walls for X-ray rooms.

Parking and traffic control are more important than for a typical office building or retail space. A large busy medical facility has hundreds of patients each day requiring more parking space than other types of office space. Some medical space owners are beginning to offer free valet services to assist mobility challenged patients that are not able to navigate large parking areas.

The proper mix of tenants is another consideration. Doctors, dentists, therapists, and other medical professionals are in the referral business. Medicine has become highly specialized and these professionals want to be able to refer patients to a specialist down the hall as well as have others refer patients to them.

Much like the apartment sector, most parts of the country are and will continue to experience medical facility occupancy rates close to 100 percent well into the future.