The demand for both new and refurbished medical office buildings will continue to rise, according to a new study authored by economist Gary Shilling for the Urban Land Institute.
The study concludes that demand for medical office space will increase 19 percent by 2019. Much of that will be driven by the aging baby boomer population, coupled with the move toward outpatient services and other non-hospital treatments to curb costs. For example example, Americans over the age of 65 make three times as many medical office visits than those under the age of 45.
Other factors forcing the demand upward include the implementation of federal healthcare reform and a trend toward more physicians being directly employed by hospitals.
"Both demand and supply factors point to rapid growth in spending on medical services and medical office buildings for many years," Shilling wrote. "Medical care will continue to grow rapidly and steadily for two basic reasons--it is an essential human service, and it is heavily supported by the government."
For more:
- here's the Urban Land Institute study (.pdf)