For many years, a tried and true question for expert panelists at healthcare real estate (HRE) conferences has been this: “What potential concerns about this business keep you up at night?” And a common answer has been the potential for the HRE sector to be rocked by a “black swan” event — some sort of devastating external economic shock that it didn’t see coming

Future HRE conferences will need to find a new talking point.

During InterFace Conference Group’s opening “State of Industry” session last Wednesday, May 12, the panelists agreed that if there has ever been a black swan event, COVID-19 was it. Yet, they noted, the HRE space has fared extraordinarily well during the past 15 months despite the virus and the global economic recession it spawned.

In fact, the pandemic has potentially expanded opportunities for HRE development, financing and investment, the panelists said. For starters, they said that health systems might now be more likely to tap into third-party sources to own and/or develop facilities they occupy.