Healthcare real estate is surging in demand, leading to a more decentralized healthcare-delivery system as medical providers look for space that can serve as surgical centers, multi-specialty outpatient offices and diagnostic labs, according to a CBRE report.
Surgery center leases grew 145% from 2022 to 2025, with average rent for these facilities rising almost $40 per square foot, or 9%, the real estate company says.
Due to their specialized infrastructure needs, surgery centers have seen the greatest rent increases over the past three years, the report says. Growth has been more measured for other medical providers that provide services in conventional office space.
“While adaptable and purpose-built medical facilities will remain prevalent within many institutional medical portfolios, competitive leased space allows for the quick deployment of services in an industry where evolving technology and policy are driving dynamic healthcare real estate strategies,” CBRE said.
The aging U.S. population has helped drive “unusually robust healthcare job growth” over the past three years and is causing a surge in demand for facilities, the report says.
“We are in the midst of what’s called a silver tsunami,” Ian Anderson, senior director of research and analysis for U.S. office, life sciences, and healthcare at CBRE, said in a webinar on the company’s 2026 real estate market outlook. “The senior population of the United States is projected to grow by roughly 50% over the next 10 years.”
“Much of this [growth] can be attributed to a 4.6% annual increase in Americans aged 75 and older over the past three years versus a three-year pre-pandemic annual average of 2.5%,” CBRE says in its latest report.
Economic and federal policy trends are supporting the shift to outpatient medical buildings and away from hospitals as consumers look for lower-cost alternatives to hospitals.
The number of people without health insurance is expected to increase by nearly 14 million due to changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Anderson said, and medical supply costs are also rising. As a result of these factors and payment policy shifts that allow more procedures to be done outside hospitals, health systems are placing more emphasis on affordable outpatient facilities as part of their portfolio optimization.
Leases rose 38% from 2022 to 2025 for diagnostics labs, 32% for behavioral health providers, 16% for primary care and internal medicine specialists and 11% for multi-specialty outpatient providers. Single-specialty occupiers jumped 55% as a result of demand for orthopedics, oncology, fertility services and other high-demand specialties, CBRE said.
Leases for imaging and radiology and multi-speciality outpatient occupiers stayed near-flat over the past three years, with primary care and internal medicine volume around 20% in that time.
Increasing demand for outpatient space is primarily in low-intensity fit-outs, according to a JLL report on medical fit-out costs. While inpatient volumes are expected to decline 1% over the next five years, outpatient volumes are expected to rise 8% as care shifts primarily to office and clinic sites.
“Low-intensity uses like endocrinology and psychiatry are expected to see the fastest volume growth,” JLL said in the report. Standalone physical therapy and labs, moderate intensity fit-outs, are also forecasted to see strong growth while the firm expects outpatient rehabilitation services to see double-digit growth from 2024 to 2029. “This outpatient growth will cause increased demand for purpose-built MOBs and conversions of other retail and office spaces into medical uses,” JLL said.
