LITIGATION (Details)	1 Months Ended
Feb. 28, 2011 Litigation relating to the NHP Acquisition lawsuit	Dec. 31, 2011 Litigation Relating to the Cogdell Acquisition lawsuit
Loss contingencies
Number of lawsuits filed	7	7
Number of lawsuits filed against Ventas	6
Number of lawsuits filed against a subsidiary of Ventas	5

The number of lawsuits filed against the subsidiary of the entity.

No definition available.

Name:	vtr_LossContingenciesNumberOfLawsuitsFiledWithEntitysSubsidiaryAsDefendant
Namespace Prefix:	vtr_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration