Chartwell Retirement Residences

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the Chartwell First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. After today's prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the call over to Mr. Vlad Volodarsky, Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Retirement Residences. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lucas. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. There is a slide presentation to accompany this conference call available on our website at charlotte.com under the Investor Relations tab. Joining me are Karen Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Jeffrey Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Balakia, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Legal Officer, and Gordon Chu, Chief Technology Officer. Before we begin, I direct you to the cautionary statements on slide 2 because during this call we will make statements containing forward-looking information and non-GAAP and other financial measures. Our MD&A and other securities filings contain information about assumptions, risks and uncertainties inherent in such forward-looking statements and details of such non-GAAP and other financial measures. More specifically, I direct you to the disclosures in our Q1 2026 MD&A under the headings Risks and Uncertainties and Forward-looking Information for Discussion of Risks and Uncertainties. These documents can be found on our website or on the Cedar Plus website. Turning to slide 3. On the heels of a record year 2025, Charwell delivered exceptionally strong operating and financial results in the first quarter in 2026. This performance is a direct result of the great work of our Residences teams who serve residents every day and of their corporate support teams who enable that work behind the scenes. Together, they continue to execute with dedication and with the mindset of innovation and continuous improvement. So far, this year I have toured 35 Retirement Living Communities including visits to over a dozen Charter Residences across the country. What stands out immediately is the energy in our homes, driven by the teams that are their achievements, optimistic about what's ahead, and constantly focused on improving the experience for residents. In virtually every interaction I had with our residents, they expressed their gratitude to the people who served them and their appreciation of the environment of kindness, care, and engagement that our teams create. Our residents are special people, bringing with them tremendous life stories and memories, and the desire to create new stories and memories with Charwell. Their positivity and determination to live life fully is genuinely inspiring. Our Q1 results reflect continuing strong operating momentum. Where the average same property occupancy increased 400 basis points to 94.7%, that drove solid financial performance with the same property adjusted NOI up 15.6% and FFO per unit increasing 35% compared to Q1 last year. Q1 2026 marked the first period of our new three year strategy. In addition to the solid operating results, we made strong progress in our investment and portfolio optimization strategy. We invested 435 million in high quality acquisitions and announced $425 million in future acquisitions, including a new strategic partnership with Femgate Asset Management and leading investment management and real estate developer. A partnership which we expect to grow in the future, including through joint development opportunities. We also closed on a $49 million disposition of a non-core property and announced dispositions of 10 other non-core properties for approximately $186 million. These results reflect consistent infusion in all aspects of our business and many of thoughtful decisions made every day. More importantly, they reflect the dedication and professionalism of our people. Their successes make me proud and I'm deeply grateful to them for their exceptional work. With that, I'll pass the mic to my partners. Karen will walk you through the operational initiatives. Jeff will cover our financial performance and Jonathan will update you on our growth and portfolio optimization initiatives. Karen?

Thanks, Vlad. Moving on to slide four, we have another strong quarters leasing activity with a positive net permanent move-in to permanent move-out of 110 units led by Quebec and Western Canada with a slight winter dip in Ontario. Our marketing strategies continue to be very effective, with a 6% increase in personalized tours from marketing sources in Q1 compared to the same period in 2025. The website generated a 15% increase in personalized tours compared to last year. In April, we held a very successful two-day open house, which generated close to 1,500 initial contacts. With occupancy at an all-time high, we are also focused on effectively managing our waitlist through Chartwell's Insiders program, which includes opportunities to keep prospects engaged while they wait for a suite to become available. We've also made improvements to add KPIs and functionality to our CRM that allows our Retirement Living Consultants to view internal and external waitlists for improved inventory management as part of our high occupancy strategy. Also in Q1, we introduced a new sales commission structure to incentivize our sales team to maintain budgeted market rates, reinforcing a focus on value-based selling. We also introduced a brand experience assessment, which evaluates the RLC's overall compliance with our sales program, processes, and performance expectations. During our leadership conference in January, we recognized our general managers and RLCs who delivered Exceptional results in 2025 by presenting Circle of Excellence and President's Club awards to our top performers. Turning to slide 5, in terms of expense control, we reduced our staffing agency costs by 59% in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025 for our continued focus on recruitment and retention activities. This quarter, we also started the rollout of our Oracle time and labor and workforce scheduling project in five pilot homes. This project is centered on automating complex scheduling and payroll processes to reduce administrative workload, improve accuracy, and ensure compliance with our numerous collective bargaining agreements. The pilot has gone very well, and we are in the process of configuring the next group of properties to come onto this new system. The system will be rolled out in phases in all of our residences over the next 18 months. As we continue to execute on our acquisition and development strategies, my team has very clearly defined the processes necessary to effectively integrate new properties, including the set of day one non-negotiables and then milestones at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days post-closing. This approach is already serving us well with the integration of the homes previously owned by SIFTEN and will be used as we plan for the integration of the Seasons Homes that Jonathan will be speaking about shortly. Finally, I want to take a moment to commend the team from Charvel Carrington House in Mission, D.C., as well as the local first responders who all worked heroically together on March 9th to ensure that all 142 residents were safely evacuated when a fire broke out. Feedback from the local fire department with respect to the preparedness of the Carrington House team and their actions that evening was extremely positive. Within a week, we had welcomed 54 residents back to the adjacent building that was not damaged by the fire, and within weeks, we were able to find places for the remaining residents, including 25 who were living in other Charterville Retirement Residences in the area. We are working with our insurance adjusters on site security demolition and rebuilding. I'll now turn it over to Jeff to take you through our financial results.

Great. Thank you, Karen. As shown on slide 6, In Q1 2026, net income was $8 million compared to $33.2 million in Q1 2025 that included the gain on sale of $60.3 million due to the completed Wealthower transaction. FFO grew to $85.6 million in Q1 2026, an increase of 52.4% compared to Q1 2025, and our FFO per unit grew $0.07 or 35% to $0.27 in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025. Our reported FFO does not include $3.3 million or $0.01 per unit of income guarantees related to recently acquired properties. Q1 2026 FFO growth benefited from higher adjusted NOI of $27.8 million and lower G&A expenses of $2.4 million. partially offset by lower management fees of $1 million. In Q1, 2026, our same property occupancy increased 400 basis points to 94.7%, and our same property adjusted NOI increased $11.6 million, or 15.6%. We also had a 10.7% increase in our NOI for occupied suites. Slide 7 summarizes our same property operating results for each platform. All of our platforms posted occupancy gains in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025, and all are operating above 90% occupancy, which positively impacted our results. Our Western Canada platform same property adjusted NOI increased 4.9 million, or 22.7%. Our Ontario Platform Same Property Adjusted NOI increased 4.1 million, or 10.7%, and our Quebec Platform Same Property Adjusted NOI increased 2.6 million, or 18.1%. Turning to slide 8, at May 7, 2026, liquidity amounted to approximately $581.6 million, which included $186.7 million of cash and cash equivalents, and 394.9 million of borrowing capacity on our credit facilities. During the three months ended March 31st, 2026, we raised total gross proceeds of 142.4 million of equity through our ATM program at an average price of $21.08. And on May 7th, 2026, we filed a new base shelf prospectus and a new prospective supplement for our ATM program to allow us to issue up to an additional $500 million of trust units, which will further support our transaction activity. The ATM proceeds, along with $91 million of CMHC insured mortgage financing closed since quarter end and $86 million of CMHC insured mortgage financing planned for May, supported the acquisition of the recently closed SIFTN portfolio to provide the financing required for both the Seasons portfolio acquisition and for Palermo that are both expected to close later this quarter. We also continue to improve our leverage metrics with interest coverage ratio growing to 3.7 times and our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio declining to 6.3 times. And we continue to improve our financing flexibility having grown our unencumbered asset base to 2.2 billion. As a reflection of the strengthening balance sheet, we are upgraded today by Morningstar DBRS to BBB with a stable outlook. For the remainder of 2026, our debt maturities include 209.6 million of mortgages with a weighted average interest rate of 2.99% and 250 million debenture with a 6% coupon. As of May 7th, 2026, We estimate the 10-year CMHC insured mortgage rate to be approximately 4.13% and the 5-year unsecured debenture rate to be approximately 4.44%. I will now turn the call to Jonathan to discuss our recent acquisitions and portfolio optimization activities.

Thank you, Jeff. We continue to execute on our portfolio strategy of enhancing our asset base to generate increased quality NOI. I'll highlight some of the deals that we computed in subsequent to Q1 2026 as pictured on slide 9. On March 2, 2026, we acquired the remaining 15% ownership interest in Chartlot-L'Unique, a 421-suite retirement residence located in the expensive suburb of Montreal, Quebec, from Bassineau, for $18.8 million before working capital adjustments and closing costs. The purchase price was partially settled through the proportionate assumption of the $6.5 million mortgage in place, with the balance settled in cash. We now have a 100% ownership interest in this residence. On March 24th, 2026, we completed the sale of one non-core property in Ottawa on Cereo for $49 million. On April 2nd, 2026, we completed the acquisition of six senior housing communities comprising 1,024 suites located in London, Waterloo and Mississauga for a total purchase price of $416.2 million. The purchase price of closing was partially settled through the assumption of $229.2 million of mortgages, the majority of which are families to insure, with the weighted average interest rate of 4.5% and weighted average remaining term of 18.9 years. The remainder of the purchase price, subject to normal working capital and other closing adjustments, was settled in cash. In addition, we entered into a forward purchase agreement to acquire 29 townhomes currently under development in London, Ontario, for a purchase price of $15.8 million, subject to normal working capital adjustments. These townhomes will be acquired upon construction completion, expected in Q1 2027. On April 15, 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% ownership interest in Palermo Village, a 116-suite retirement residence in Oldsville, Ontario, for $43 million. This transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026. On April 25, 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to sell nine non-core properties with 635 suites in Ontario for $117.9 million. Net proceeds after debt repayment of $33.7 million in transaction costs are expected to be paid $2.1 million. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026. On May 1, 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to sell a long-term care residence in Ontario for $68.3 million. The transaction is subject to regulatory and other required approvals and is expected to close in Q4 2026. On May 7, 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 30% ownership interest in the Seasons Retirement Communities Portfolio through a joint arrangement with Fendi Asset Management, a leading alternative investment manager and real estate developer. The portfolio includes 23 seniors housing communities comprising 2,943 suites in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Current occupancy stands at approximately 85%. Chartwell will manage the operations of these residences. The purchase price for Chartwell's interest is $382.5 million and will be partially satisfied by the proportionate assumption of approximately $195.8 million of in-place mortgages, with the remainder to be settled in cash. The transaction is expected Chartwell will have the ability to acquire another 20% interest in the portfolio 12 months after closing this transaction. Fendgate will continue its role as a long-term owner and asset manager. This transaction represents a significant milestone in Chartwell's strategy to grow its platform with high-quality assets through partnerships with institutional As part of the ongoing strategic partnership, Chartwell will have the option to participate in Fendi's future development of Retirement Residences in Ontario. Should Chartwell elect to participate in any such development, Chartwell will provide operations management services and the parties will have certain put and call rights once the residence is stabilized. The partnership brings together two experienced organizations with a shared commitment to high-quality seniors housing and long-term stewardship of retirement residences. In 20.6, we continue to grow our portfolio with over $860 million of completed and announced acquisitions. We're doing so prudently, shifting capital from non-core assets to strategic core residences, while taking advantage of our strong access to capital. We continue to evaluate several interesting opportunities to grow and enhance the quality of our real estate portfolio. We remain disciplined in how we approach underwriting, diligence, and integration of our new acquisitions to deliver enhanced services to residents, mitigate disruption to operations, and achieve our required investment returns. We were also engaged in discussions with local and national developers across the country and repaired our development program with a meaningful pipeline of state-of-the-art assets to bring into our portfolio. We pursue such developments in a prudent manner with a preference for off-balance sheet development similar to our arrangements in Quebec. We intend to continue on this path of optimizing our portfolio through strategic acquisitions, prudent off-balance sheet development with sophisticated partners, the diversification of our sources of capital, and the divestiture of non-core assets. I'll turn the call back to Vlad to wrap up.

Thank you, Jonathan. Turning to slide 10, I remain confident in the strong positive momentum in our business. Demand continues to grow. New supply remains limited. We should continue to support medium-term occupancy and aligned earnings growth. Our investment team, led by Jonathan, continues to pursue numerous acquisition opportunities across the country, and we have been making solid strides in building out our development pipeline with various partners and moving a number of projects through design and entitlement processes. We expect to start several of these later this year. Our board continues to be proactive in its succession planning and renewal process. at our upcoming Annual General Meeting. Two new directors, Rael Diamond, who was appointed to the Board on January 1, 2026, and Douglas Maplacci, will be standing for their first election. Doug brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across senior living, real estate, and financial services. He has built and left several senior housing platforms. Most recently, he co-founded and acted as the CEO and Vice Chair of the Board of Amica. Doug understands operations, development, and capital allocation deeply, and knows our sector exceptionally well. Our board and executive team are excited to have Doug joining us. His addition to the board is especially important now as we execute our strategic objectives, grow and optimize our property portfolio, and continue exploring ways to innovate and enhance services we deliver to our residents. What gives me the most confidence isn't just the results. It is what's happening inside our residences every day. Engaged and dedicated teams who see it as a privilege to be able to serve those who choose to live at Charwell. Teams who, despite their successes, do not rest on their laurels. They thrive to innovate and improve, enhancing experiences for our residents, making their services even more personalized and memorable. That's the foundation we're building on. I will now close our prepared remarks with a story from one of our residences, pictured on slide 11. This story speaks to how we build our organization through a people-first approach. Karen Kim, one of our general managers, came to Canada in 2018 as a nurse and joined Charleville-New Edinburgh Square while working towards her Canadian license. Like many newcomers, she was starting over, taking on a frontline role, getting to know residents, and understanding day-to-day realities of senior living. She was so passionate about her work at Charlo that she helped to recruit several of her friends to join Charlo in Ottawa, where she was working at the time. Over time, with the support of leaders who recognized her potential, she progressed into various leadership roles and today leads Charville Rocklet in Ottawa, a premium residence in the market. What stands out is not just her individual journey but what it represents – our ability to develop talent from within to create pathways for growth and to foster a culture where people are empowered to contribute and lead with purpose. This is how we build strength in the organization over the long term by investing in people and in doing so strengthening the experience we deliver to our residents. Thank you for your attention this morning. We will now be pleased to answer your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Please pick up your handset when asking a question. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Lauren Palmar from Desjardins.

Lauren, go ahead. Sorry. Thanks. Good morning and congrats on all of the acquisition activity. Sticking with that theme, I just wanted to get an idea, you know, given the challenges of the Competition Bureau and the SIFT and portfolio closing, the end of quarter closing timeline feels a little ambitious. I was just wondering if based on, you know, what you know of the updated or the Competition Bureau's updated criteria, are there any residences that might be at risk or is that being mitigated by the fact that you're only acquiring a 30% interest?

Yeah, so thanks for the question. We're aware of the Accomplishment Bureau's evolving approach and focus on market share by property type in each local market. But this transaction is only subject to retirement regulatory approval and lender consent. So we're confident in the end of Q2 closing date.

Sorry, so just to confirm, the Accomplishment Bureau is not going to be evaluating this?

That would be our expectation.

Okay. And then you mentioned that the 20%, the additional 20% you can acquire within 12 months. Could you maybe give us an idea of what milestones need to be achieved? How, you know, do you really, what is the timing, sorry, expected timing on acquiring this and how would you determine pricing?

Yeah, the pricing will be consistent with the pricing that we went in at on the 30%. The milestone is the 12-month, the passing of the 12 months, and then the acquisition will be contingent on either partner's desire to proceed.

Okay. And then maybe just the last one, because I think you guys are going to have management fees on – the portfolio. Can you maybe help us understand maybe from a modeling perspective how to think about that? How to think about the management of the portfolio? The management fees that you'll earn on the portfolio.

We will be earning 5% of revenue as management fee as operations manager for this portfolio, a standard market management fee.

Okay. Thank you so much. I'll turn it back.

Your next question comes from the line of Brad Serges, Raymond James. Or no, sorry, Jonathan Kelcher from TD Cohen. Jonathan, please go ahead.

Thanks. Nice to butt on, Brad. Just sticking with the joint venture, what's the going in yield on the 30%? It would be in the high fives. High fives? Okay, and that's with the 85% occupancy. And on that occupancy, is that a function of some of the assets still being in lease-up?

Yes, there are assets that are still in lease-up in the portfolio.

Okay, and how long do you think it'll take to get the portfolio up to a stabilized level?

We think we can get there within 12 months. There's one residence that was recently opened, so that one may take longer, but on average we should get to stabilized occupancy levels within 12 months.

And Jonathan, there's also a few assets going through accretive capital projects that should help support Belisa.

Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then just, I guess, looking ahead on acquisitions, you talked about several interesting opportunities. Are you looking at all that markets that are outside of ones where you currently own assets?

Not aggressively. We do see some opportunities in some Canadian markets outside of our current markets. So we look at opportunities when they are presented, but right now our focus is on our core markets.

Okay, thanks.

I'll turn it back. Your next question comes from the line of Brad Sturges from Raymond James. Brad, please go ahead. Looks like Jonathan took all my questions.

Just on the, I guess, on the lease-up aspect of going in high 5% yield, I guess, how should we think about as occupancy reaches stabilization, I guess, margins stabilize, what that stabilized yield could look like, you know, in the next 12 to 24 months? Yeah.

Good morning, Brad. That will go into the low six range as stabilized.

And I guess you have the opportunity to participate in future development with SunGate. How should we think about that opportunity set today and whether you can comment on what could be in the pipeline from an existing opportunity perspective?

Yeah, so Fendgate is an established developer, I'm sure a sophisticated developer, so we're very excited to have this partnership with them. We would expect it to be similar to the partnership we have with Classimo in Quebec in terms of structure and our ability to opt-in or out of their developments. And our opt-in would give us, as I mentioned, those rights to acquire on stabilization and our and our obligation to manage the property. I would expect it to be a modest amount in the province of Ontario, so probably one to two developments at any given time. Okay.

I'll help alter that. Thank you. Okay. Our next question comes from the line of Manju Gupta from the Scotiabank. Manju, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. So, on the Seasons portfolio, will there be a rebranding of these assets to Tractfil, or are you going to stick to Seasons brand? And then the next question is, can you spell out the upside on margins here as you move up the occupancy?

We will regrant the portfolio as Charvel in due course, of course, and the margin opportunity will be similar to what we would normally describe to as margin opportunity as the occupancies grow from 86% today to hopefully 95% in the future. A lot of the additional revenue that will be generated will fall down to the bottom line and will continue to improve margins in this portfolio.

Thank you. I mean, if I look at the Alberta portion of the, you know, season's portfolio, it's a heavier mix of AL. Is that like the continuum care part there? And then, you know, there was a recent government funding increase in Alberta. Do you benefit from that?

Yes, it's a portion of the portfolio. Six properties out of seven have government funding in them and the funding increases will help with the revenue in that portfolio as well.

Okay, thank you. Okay, moving on to the dispositions, the nine properties you kind of disclosed, have they been sold to one buyer or is it collection of them? I mean, just trying to get a sense of Is the capital available for these, you know, kind of older, non-core assets?

They're being sold to one buyer.

Okay, they're being sold to one buyer. Okay. Okay, good to know that. Okay, moving on, maybe a couple of housekeeping here. On income guarantees, How is the VISTA and Edgewater ramping up? I mean, do you see this income guarantee is burning off? Or when do you see that burning off? I see that, you know, no ISFO was disclosed this quarter.

Yeah. Hi, Himesh. Yeah, we did have $3.3 million of income guarantees in the quarter, and those do burn off and convert to NOI as we successfully lease up the properties. And we're seeing, I think you asked about VISTAs. As you did, I think we're seeing good lease-up activity there. So, you know, those will tail off during the balance of this year and may continue a bit into 2027. And then subject to us doing, you know, catching new acquisitions that may involve income guarantees in the future.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then just one last question here on the balance sheet. So, system is already closed now. You spoke about some CNHU debt financing post-quarters. How much cash do we have here for this season's portfolio?

So, system closed on April 2nd. So, it wasn't captured in the March 31st balance sheet. So, we are carrying $187 million of cash on hand now. So, that included $91 million of CMHC financing that we did over the last week. In addition, we have another $86 million of financing that should close in the next two to three weeks. So that would more than cover the season's acquisition requirements. And then that, in addition to, you know, future CMAC financings and asset sale proceeds that supports, you know, future acquisition activity, including potentially the additional 20% if that is exercised.

Got it. And you will receive that nine asset property sale in Q2 as well. So that funding is coming through and then Valley Cliff is coming as well.

Yeah, Valley Cliff later in the year likely because it requires some regulatory approvals, but the Ontario nine portfolio sale will be this quarter as well, or is expected to be this quarter.

Okay. Thank you so much. I'm not going to be back. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Woolley from CIBC Capital Markets. Paul, please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, everyone.

Just on the Fendgate joint venture, is there like a natural size that this would grow to? I think, you know, you've measured it at $1.3 billion and you'll be adding developments over time. Is there like a sort of land bank in there already that you kind of have an idea of like exactly how many assets this could be in the future? And then would this JV ever look at acquiring existing properties too?

Our expectation, as Jonathan pointed out, is there hopefully will be one to two developments a year that would be added to this joint venture arrangements. We just negotiated the deal to acquire 30% interest in that, so we may acquire properties in this joint venture or may not. This is not decided at this point in time.

Okay. And then... One of your peers mentioned on a quarterly conference call, they sort of talked about the evolution of their care platform and that, you know, not surprisingly, like during COVID and in the immediate years following COVID, that, you know, there was, you know, barely any profitability from delivering care, if not, you know, meaningful losses in that area. This is sort of the first year where they're sort of seeing, you know, meaningful profit per care hour. Does that track, you know, with what your experience has been? And how do you guys measure sort of the profitability of that going forward? And is margin growth really a function of that care profitability improving?

Some of it is. So if you look at our additional care services, they have been growing by double digits now for three or four years in a row. We expect that trend to continue because there continues to be additional need in the people who are staying with us. So we expect that that line item will continue to grow. You should realize that care services obviously come with costs. Our target is to get 25 to 30% margin on those services. And so we think we're achieving those margins on the services. But overall, if you look at our overall margins being in low 40s, the more services that we provide, the margins can go lower, but the profitability of the business will go higher. So it's a trade-off in that sense, but there's certainly an opportunity to continue to improve and deliver more and better services to the customers and generate additional profitability. And overall, just in terms of the scale for travel of this opportunity, our care services, additional care services are about 50%, 50 million on a billion dollars of revenue. So it's not a huge opportunity, but it is an important opportunity for us to make sure that we are set to deliver services that are required by our residents.

And then just finally staying on this topic, you know, you're growing in scale pretty rapidly here. Are you able to extract, like, better pricing from vendors, you know, in recent years as you guys have grown, like whether it's, you know, food distribution or supplies, that kind of stuff? You know, do those vendor contracts come up for renewal and you expect to see more gains there?

Yeah. I mean, the short answer is yes, we are seeing good scale benefits, you know, including on food and repair and maintenance. So it is helping drive some margin improvement.

And our supply team has been doing phenomenal work for many, many years now, and this is an ongoing process. This is not just a function we've grown, so let's go and talk to our vendors. They do this on an ongoing basis every time the contracts come up for renewals, and we treat our vendors as partners, and so we want to make sure that There's care and distribution of profits and risks and deliver quality products to charitable, so that always comes into consideration as well.

Okay. And then finally, Jeff, just on, you know, congratulations on the credit rating upgrade, any material interest rate savings you expect to see from the upgrade?

Nothing imminent. We're not using our credit facility right now, so there would be a benefit in pricing there. And, you know, we may ultimately come back to the unsecured market later in the year, but that's still to be determined. But if we do, we would expect to see, again, some benefit from that market.

Great. That's perfect. Thanks very much, Alan.

Thanks, Phil. Your next question comes from the line of Juliana of Thornhill. from National Bank. Juliano, please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning, everyone. I was just turning back to the seasoned portfolio. I'm wondering if you just kind of explain the geographic exposure and why you think that fits the chart well, just as well as the kind of long-term rental growth rate in that portfolio.

The majority of the portfolio is in Ontario. There's two properties in in Alberta, the rest of them are in Ontario, mostly southwestern Ontario. And your second question was on rental rates, growth opportunities. We see them being similar to what they are in the travel overall portfolio. Our expectation is that as demand continues to grow, there's an opportunity to increase market rates that we're asking our new residents to pay. and the philosophy on the rent increases for the existing residents will be consistent with our philosophy, which would be similar to inflation plus one or two percent to address cost escalations in the business.

And I'm just wondering, would it be right to view the kind of low occupancy in the portfolio as kind of the reason why you guys were brought in because you yourselves are better operators here and that you can possibly operate the portfolio better than before and keep it fully more longer?

Absolutely not. Seasons is a great operator and they've done a very good job running this portfolio. There are a few properties that are in lease up that are leasing up over time and will drive overall average occupancy up. We certainly think that we can improve on certain things as operators and operators that scale and we certainly improvements, but business seasons have been doing a very good job building and operating this portfolio for many years.

And then just in terms of the management fee there, will that be proportionally offset by kind of associated G&A, or do you think you can scale the platform going forward?

We think, certainly at a scale where every time we add more properties to our portfolio, the management fees that these properties generate, or notional management fees if we look at our 100% owned properties, are higher than the cost that we need to over the last number of years that now help us to grow and scale the business profitably.

Okay. And then just lastly on the disposition of the non-core, the nine-home portfolio, were you guys able to disclose the cap rate for that?

Yeah, we're actually seeing strengthened cap rates. for this asset class and a deeper buyer pool. So the cap rate is about 100 to 150 basis points higher than what we're buying Class A assets for. So it's in the mid-70s.

Okay. Thank you, guys.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Vlad Volodarsky, Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell, for closing remarks.

Thank you, Lucas. That wraps up our today's conference call. A reminder that our AGM will be held in a hybrid format on Thursday, June 18th at 4.30 p.m. Details will be posted on our website next week. We're looking forward to you joining us then. Thanks again to everybody for joining us. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to give us a call. Goodbye.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.