TOLEDO, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2003--Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN) announced today that it completed $127 million of new investments during the fourth quarter of 2002.

The investment activity during the quarter was approximately 94% real property investments and 6% loans. Facility-based investments include 43% assisted living facilities, 42% skilled nursing facilities and 15% specialty care facilities. Aggregate funding was provided to 19 operators in 16 states.

The investments for the quarter included $6.8 million towards three construction projects, with the remainder anticipated to be funded over the next 9 to 15 months. These projects have total estimated construction costs of $56.4 million.

Also during the quarter, the company had $25.5 million of asset sales and loan payoffs relating to two assisted living facilities and one specialty care hospital.

For the fiscal year 2002, the company completed gross investments of $457 million, offset by $110 million of asset sales and loan payoffs, generating $347 million in net new investments. At December 31, 2002, the company had investments in 245 health care facilities in 33 states with 45 operators and total assets of approximately $1.6 billion.

The company also announced that it will release the fourth quarter earnings and year-end results prior to the market open on Monday, February 3, 2003. A conference call is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. EST on February 3, 2003, to discuss these results. The conference call will be accessible by telephone and through the Internet. Telephone access is available by dialing 303-205-0066 or 800-218-0713. Callers to this number will be able to listen to the company's business update. For those unable to listen to the call live, a taped rebroadcast will be available beginning two hours after completion of the live call on February 3rd through February 10th. To access the rebroadcast, dial 303-590-3000 or 800-405-2236. The conference ID number is 520890.

To participate on the webcast, log on to www.hcreit.com or www.ccbn.com 15 minutes before the call to download the necessary software. Replay will be available for 90 days through the same websites.

Health Care REIT, Inc., with headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, is a real estate investment trust that invests in health care facilities, primarily skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. For more information on Health Care REIT, Inc., via facsimile at no cost, dial 1-800-PRO-INFO and enter the company code - HCN. More information is available on the Internet at http://www.hcreit.com.

This document may contain "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements concern the possible expansion of our portfolio; the performance of our operators and properties; our ability to enter into agreements with new viable tenants for properties which we take back from financially troubled tenants, if any; our ability to make distributions; our policies and plans regarding investments, financings and other matters; our tax status as a real estate investment trust; our ability to appropriately balance the use of debt and equity; and our ability to access capital markets or other sources of funds. When we use words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. Our expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from our expectations. This may be a result of various factors, including: the status of the economy; the status of capital markets, including prevailing interest rates; compliance with and changes to regulations and payment policies within the health care industry; changes in financing terms; competition within the health care and senior housing industries; and changes in federal, state and local legislation. Finally, we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements.

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