Real Estate Transactions - Life Science JV Interest Purchase (Details) $ in Thousands	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
Nov. 30, 2018 USD ($) property joint_venture	Sep. 30, 2019 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2018 USD ($)
Real Estate [Line Items]
Payments to acquire real estate			$ 21,000
Gain (loss) on consolidation	$ 50,000	$ 11,481	$ (41,017)
Life science joint ventures
Real Estate [Line Items]
Number of joint ventures (in joint ventures) \| joint_venture	3
Number of properties acquired \| property	4
Payments to acquire real estate	$ 92,000
Investment ownership percentage	100.00%

Gain (Loss) On Consolidation

No definition available.

Name:	hcp_GainLossOnConsolidation
Namespace Prefix:	hcp_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Number Of Joint Ventures

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	hcp_NumberOfJointVentures
Namespace Prefix:	hcp_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Number Of Properties Acquired

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	hcp_NumberOfPropertiesAcquired
Namespace Prefix:	hcp_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The percentage of ownership of common stock or equity participation in the investee accounted for under the equity method of accounting.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=114001798&loc=d3e33918-111571

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_EquityMethodInvestmentOwnershipPercentage
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The cash outflow from the acquisition of a piece of land, anything permanently fixed to it, including buildings, structures on it and so forth; includes real estate intended to generate income for the owner; excludes real estate acquired for use by the owner.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 230
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 13
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118932676&loc=d3e3213-108585

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_PaymentsToAcquireRealEstate
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_RealEstateLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableInterestEntitiesByClassificationOfEntityAxis=hcp_LifeScienceJVsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: