Aging Baby Boomers Will Drive Demand for Healthcare Properties Over Next Decade, Grubb & Ellis Repo...( SANTA ANA Calif. April 3 2008 /- ...),Health

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Grubb & Ellis Company (NYSE: GBE), a leading real estate services and investment firm, announced in a report released today that aging baby boomers and their increasing demand for medical services will fuel demand for healthcare properties over the next decade. As a result, medical properties are positioned to outperform other property types over the next 10 years, according to Robert Bach, Grubb & Ellis' Chief Economist and author of the report.

Medical office space is already outpacing traditional office space as measured by asking rental rates. From 2000 to 2007, asking rental rates for medical office space grew an average of 2.8 percent per year on average, while rents for traditional office product grew an average of 1.3 percent, according to Grubb & Ellis.

The growing demand for medical services has kept healthcare construction booming. Norcross, Ga.-based Reed Construction Data reports that monthly spending on healthcare construction is 20 percent higher than a year ago.

For 2008, Reed projects that healthcare construction will jump another 14 percent. Four states accounted for one-third of healthcare starts in 2007: California, Florida, Texas and Illinois. By decade's end, construction could reach $60.1 billion, according to FMI Corp., a management consulting and investment banking firm based in Raleigh, N.C.

There are multiple drivers fueling demand for healthcare properties. Total public and private healthcare expenditures in the U.S. are expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.7 percent from 2007 to 2017, according to a report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. They will comprise 19.5 percent of GDP in 2017, up from 16.3
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