Healthpeak Properties (NYSE: DOC) pays an annualized dividend of $1.22 per share, which works out to roughly a 7% yield at recent prices, and 2025 adjusted funds from operations of $1.69 per share covered that payout with room to spare. The harder parts of the question — whether Healthpeak REIT dividends and risks line up in your favor going forward — depend on how the Janus Living senior housing separation plays out, how a soft lab market affects rents, and how the distribution gets taxed in your account. The company you are buying today is not the Healthpeak of a few years ago. It absorbed Physicians Realty Trust in March 2024 and spun its senior housing portfolio into a separately traded REIT in March 2026, leaving a business concentrated in outpatient medical buildings and life science labs.
The Dividend and Whether Cash Flow Covers It
Healthpeak’s $1.22 annualized dividend is high by historical healthcare REIT standards, and the yield reflects a market that repriced the stock during a period of elevated interest rates and portfolio reshuffling. A high yield only matters if the cash is there to pay it. In 2025 it was: AFFO came in at $1.69 per share against the $1.22 payout, and Nareit FFO was $1.81 per share.
The 2026 picture is less settled. Management guided to Nareit FFO of $1.70 to $1.74 per share and same-store cash net operating income growth of -1% to +1%. Part of the year-over-year FFO decline is mechanical: Janus Living’s results no longer consolidate into Healthpeak’s. The company has not given an explicit 2026 AFFO figure, so the margin of coverage over the dividend is the number to watch when quarterly results come out.
A quick note on why REIT investors use these measures instead of net income. Standard earnings include a large depreciation charge against real estate assets that often appreciate in practice. FFO adds that depreciation back, and AFFO goes further by subtracting the recurring capital spending needed to keep the properties leasable. AFFO is the closest proxy for cash available to pay the dividend.1Nareit. Funds From Operation (FFO)
On the balance sheet, net debt to adjusted EBITDAre stood at 5.2x at the end of 2025.2Healthpeak Properties. Quarterly Results – Healthpeak Properties, Inc. For healthcare REITs, anything under 6x is generally considered manageable. The ratio may shift as Janus Living-related assets move off the consolidated books. Healthpeak carries investment-grade credit ratings, which help keep borrowing costs reasonable when debt rolls over.
How Healthpeak Dividends Are Taxed
Healthpeak qualifies as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code, which lets the company avoid corporate income tax as long as it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 857 – Taxation of Real Estate Investment Trusts and Their Beneficiaries The trade-off lands on you: most REIT distributions are taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate, not at the lower qualified dividend rate that applies to many corporate stocks.
Each year’s Form 1099-DIV breaks the distribution into components: ordinary income, capital gains, and return of capital.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-DIV Each piece is taxed differently, so the headline dividend figure doesn’t tell you what you actually owe.
The 20% Section 199A Deduction
Section 199A lets non-corporate taxpayers deduct up to 20% of qualified REIT dividends, which lowers the effective rate on the ordinary-income portion.5Internal Revenue Service. Qualified Business Income Deduction The deduction was scheduled to expire at the end of 2025 but was made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law on July 4, 2025. REIT dividends qualify for the full 20% deduction regardless of your income level, with none of the wage or property limitations that affect other categories of qualified business income.
Capital Gains and Return of Capital
A portion of what Healthpeak pays out may be classified as capital gains distributions, taxed at long-term capital gains rates rather than ordinary rates. Another portion often gets labeled return of capital. ROC isn’t taxed in the year you receive it. It reduces your cost basis in the shares instead, which means a larger capital gain (and larger tax bill) when you eventually sell.
Real estate companies routinely generate meaningful ROC because large depreciation deductions push taxable income below the cash actually distributed. You need to track basis adjustments year by year. Some brokerages handle this automatically; others don’t.
What Healthpeak Actually Owns Now
Two property types drive the business. Outpatient medical buildings — the clinics, specialist offices, and ambulatory surgery centers typically clustered near hospital campuses — contribute about 55% of same-store net operating income. Life science lab space leased to biotech and pharmaceutical tenants contributes roughly 34%.2Healthpeak Properties. Quarterly Results – Healthpeak Properties, Inc. A smaller continuing care retirement community portfolio remains, but outpatient medical and labs are the long-term focus.
The outpatient medical segment was the stronger performer in 2025, delivering 3.9% same-store cash NOI growth with tenant retention of 85–86%. Labs produced a more modest 1.5%, though retention there ran 87–88%.2Healthpeak Properties. Quarterly Results – Healthpeak Properties, Inc. Life science tenants invest heavily to customize their space, which makes them expensive to replace and reluctant to move.
The current ticker is DOC. If you see older references to PEAK, that symbol stopped trading when the Physicians Realty Trust merger closed on March 1, 2024.6Healthpeak Properties. Healthpeak Properties Closes Merger with Physicians Realty Trust That merger roughly doubled the outpatient medical footprint and is the reason that segment now outweighs life science.
The Janus Living Separation
In January 2026, Healthpeak announced the formation of Janus Living, Inc., a standalone REIT focused entirely on senior housing. Healthpeak contributed 34 communities totaling 10,422 units in exchange for a majority ownership stake.7Healthpeak Properties. Healthpeak Properties Announces the Formation of a Pure-Play, RIDEA-Structured Publicly Traded Senior Housing REIT Janus Living completed its IPO on March 20, 2026, selling 48.3 million shares at $20 per share and trading on the NYSE under JAN.8Healthpeak Properties. Healthpeak Properties and Janus Living Announce Closing of Janus Living Initial Public Offering
One important point for existing shareholders: this was not a traditional tax-free spin-off that put JAN shares directly in your account. Healthpeak holds the equity stake on its balance sheet and serves as Janus Living’s external manager, which generates ongoing fee income. That structure means Healthpeak still has meaningful exposure to senior housing performance. If Janus Living underperforms, the value of the retained stake drops, and management fee income could face pressure if the arrangement is ever renegotiated.
Risks That Could Pressure the Payout
Life science oversupply is the loudest concern. Lab vacancy across the 13 largest U.S. markets reached 23.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025, though that was the first quarterly decline since 2022. Healthpeak’s in-place tenants are sticky, but every lease eventually expires, and tenants renegotiate from a stronger position when alternatives are plentiful. The 2026 guidance for -1% to +1% same-store growth reflects that uncertainty. Whether vacancy keeps declining or that fourth-quarter dip was a one-off is the signal to watch.
Medicare reimbursement is the key risk on the outpatient medical side. Healthpeak doesn’t bill Medicare directly, but many of its tenants depend heavily on it, and the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule flows indirectly through to rents. For 2026, CMS set the conversion factor at approximately $33.40 to $33.57 depending on whether the provider participates in an alternative payment model, up from $32.35 the prior year.9Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule That’s a favorable update, but the fee schedule is set annually and has historically been unpredictable. A steep cut in a future year could stress tenants and eventually show up in renewals.
Interest rates cut both ways. Healthpeak carries real debt, and the 5.2x leverage ratio means refinancing costs matter. Higher rates increase borrowing expense and make a 7% yield compete against safer alternatives like Treasury bonds. Lower rates tend to help REIT valuations as income investors return to real estate.
Finally, there is the ongoing execution question around Janus Living itself. The separation reshapes Healthpeak’s income statement, affects same-store comparisons, and leaves the company with a management-company role it did not previously perform at this scale. The next several quarters of reporting will show how much of the dividend coverage story holds together once the moving parts settle.