Healthcare tenants have shown more apprehension to makelong-term lease commitments during the pandemic, but many arecontinuing to push ahead anyway and sign new leases, particularlyfor those that with upcoming renewals. JLL's Los Angeles healthcarereal estate team has signed several lease transactions in the lastthree months, even as the market continued to change and manyin-person doctors' appointments slowed down.

"We are seeing that most healthcare tenants know that they willneed their space for the short and the long term," ChrisIsola, EVP at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com."Work from home doesn't really work for medical, as no doctor hasan exam room or operating room in her house. Healthcare occupierstypically can only generate revenue in their premises. And despitea significant increase in telehealth, most of healthcare remains acontact sport. Therefore, in the last quarter we have completed anumber of transactions and overall our transaction volume iscomparable to 2019."

During the pandemic, Isola and his colleagues closed sixlong-term lease deals for healthcare clients. "Many of these had acritical path towards completion before COVID," explainsIsola. "Nevertheless we were successful in avoiding anyreduction in term length or change to the negotiated terms due tothe pandemic. And, actually two of the renewals doubled in size.Additionally, we represented a major regional healthcare system ontwo sizeable new leases that were completed over the same period oftime."