Essentially, “Welltower is buying skilled nursing assets on the cheap,” says Matt Kopsky, a REIT analyst at Edward Jones who covers Welltower.

REITs with significant development, redevelopment and other capex needs could benefit from de-REITing, some fund managers claim.

Issuance is marching ahead at a steady pace, but lenders are adapting to a market where business from maturities is declining.

Banks provided 71 percent of all construction financing in 2017, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.