Environments for Aging’s 2025 Senior Living Design Industry Predictions series continues with Grant Warner, senior housing practice leader, associate partner, at BKV Group (Dallas).
Check out Grant’s thoughts on what opportunities and challenges are ahead for the industry over the next 12 months, including the need for risk-takers and innovation as well as meeting the demand for more senior housing.
Environments for Aging: Post election, how might the regulatory environment change and what will that mean for our industry and the built environment?
Grant Warner: I think we can anticipate that the proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services higher staffing requirements will likely be dropped. But the affordable housing crisis, including senior housing, will not be a priority for the new administration.
EFA: Do you think the new administration’s policies will affect construction prices and labor—how? If so, what impact will that have on the senior living design sector?
Warner: I fear the new administration’s obsessions with tariffs and mass deportations will stall the pace of recovery by driving supply chain, construction, and labor costs back up.
EFA: Where do you think the senior living design industry is heading in 2025?
Warner: I hope the industry will pay more attention to affordability, innovation, and risk-taking. Growth has been tepid, so some bold actors could really pull ahead of the industry by taking some risks and inspiring others to move forward again.
EFA: What’s the biggest opportunity for change in the new year?
Warner: I think the biggest opportunity for change will be risk-takers. Some are already surging ahead and will likely continue to broaden their lead as others keep waiting on the sidelines for more conditions to improve that just won’t.
These risk-takers will be catalysts for changes in development, technology, staffing, and flexibility.
EFA: Demand for senior living units continued to outpace inventory in 2024. Do you expect that to continue in the coming year or will the “cork pop soon”?
Warner: I expect demand to continue to outpace inventory throughout the seniors housing crisis. We just can’t seem to build and renovate fast enough because of financial constraints and radical 90-degree turns politically every four years.
For more insights from industry leaders, read here.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging and can be reached at [email protected].