Carlyle Group has sold an independent living senior housing portfolio for a total of $540M among a number of buyers, including PGIM Real Estate, and plans to sell another $730M in senior housing in the near future.

PGIM took four properties totaling 624 units in Florida, Texas and Washington state. Other buyers — including Clarion Partners, Livingston Street Capital and Principal Real Estate Investors — took properties in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, Green Street reports. Newmark brokered the deals.

Amid Carlyle's plans to complete more sales, it has also been acquiring senior properties, including three properties totaling 463 units in Texas for $103M in December.

The deals come as senior housing, which suffered drops in occupancy during the coronavirus pandemic, has seen occupancies starting to edge upward again.

Overall, U.S. senior housing occupancy increased in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 81%, a 1-percentage-point increase from Q3 2021 and a 2.3-percentage-point increase from a pandemic low of 78.7% in Q2 2021, according to National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care data.

Independent living occupancy increased to 83.6% during Q4, up from its pandemic low of 81.8% in Q1 2021 but still below its pre-pandemic high of 89.7%, NIC reports.

“Fourth quarter occupancy is often negatively affected by seasonal illnesses like the flu, but occupancy continued to increase despite the challenges posed by the delta variant,” NIC Chief Economist Beth Burnham Mace said in a statement.

“These conditions, as well as relatively limited near-term inventory growth, should continue to help senior housing bounce back from pandemic-related occupancy losses,” Mace said.