Nareit's REIT Report Podcast

The landscape for real estate fundamentals looks “very favorable” going forward, supported by GDP and employment growth, according to Lowell Bolken, portfolio manager of the Securian AM Real Asset Income Fund and Real Estate Securities Fund. “We think employment will be strong as job openings are still above the actual unemployed population right now,” Bolken told Nareit’s REIT Report. He noted th...

Jonathan Morris, adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Master’s of Real Estate program and a former REIT executive, believes the continued success and evolution of the REIT industry highlights the need to enhance the level of understanding of the REIT structure and what makes it work so well. Speaking on the REIT Report, Morris said he has launched a new education platform, REIT Academy, to...

Investors who own their own homes may be taking a limited view of real estate investment, and in turn are missing out on the benefits of owning commercial real estate through REITs, according to Nicole Funari, Nareit vice president of research. Speaking on the REIT Report, Funari noted that oftentimes homeowners think they are already invested in real estate simply by owning their own home. While...

REITs have convincingly outperformed private equity real estate funds in head-to-head matchups over a 20-year sample period from the first quarter of 2000 to the fourth quarter of 2019,  according to Tom Arnold, a visiting scholar at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. Speaking with the REIT Report, Arnold highlighted the results of new research, sponsored by Nareit, that h...

REITs can help provide access to the new economy sectors—such as cell towers, data centers, and networked logistics properties—that complement the traditional real estate property types, according to  Todd Kellenberger, client portfolio manager, real estate securities at Principal Real Estate Investors. Kellenberger noted that the idea of using REITs to gain access to these new economy sectors as...

As technological innovation results in more efficient supply chain distribution, changes are also occurring in traditional concepts of industrial real estate and where it should be located, says Steve Weikal, lecturer, researcher, and the CRE Tech lead in the MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab. “Certainly what the industry thinks of as industrial real estate, or warehouse distribution real estate, has...

A global pandemic, major climate events, and a focus on social change have combined to create “unprecedented” demand for talent to fill sustainability and ESG positions, says Shelly Fust, co-leader for Korn Ferry’s global Sustainability and ESG Solutions Center of Expertise. Speaking on the REIT Report, Fust described sustainability and ESG as “a very big tent,” requiring talent from all sectors a...

The recovery in the leisure travel sector continues, despite concerns over new COVID-19 variants, while a similar trend in the business travel segment is yet to emerge, according to Jim Sullivan, managing director and REIT analyst at BTIG. Speaking on the REIT Report, Sullivan said that as of mid-August, “we have not seen any material decline. Traffic volume is holding up pretty well in the face o...

Conditions remain healthy for real estate investment, with inflation expected to be transitory and any increase in long-term interest rates likely to be modest, according to Carly Tripp, global chief investment officer and head of Nuveen Real Estate Investments. Speaking on the REIT Report, Tripp said that although inflation had been felt in terms of cost fluctuations for building materials, Nuvee...

Recent REIT M&A activity underscores the resiliency of the real estate sector and more transactions are likely this year as conditions remain favorable for continued deal-making, experts at Deloitte say. Lynn Kawaminami, partner at Deloitte Tax, and Nathan Florio, principal at Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics, spoke to the REIT Report on July 20. “All the activity that we’ve seen t...

Reliance on mass transit is playing a key role in determining the pace at which office markets across the country re-populate, says Julie Whelan, head of occupier research for the Americas at CBRE. Speaking on the REIT Report, Whelan noted that Texas is currently experiencing probably the largest return to the office, despite vaccination rates in some parts of the state lagging the national averag...

Real estate deal activity is accelerating in sectors with strong macro tailwinds, along with increased confidence in the public markets toward valuations, according to Tim Bodner, partner and U.S. real estate deals leader at PwC. Speaking on the REIT Report, Bodner said property sectors including logistics, multifamily, and life science have all seen increased deal flow. Office assets located in t...

Fundamentals for U.S. REITs have moved beyond COVID-19 “very distinctly,” with market rent growth, occupancy gains, and cash flow rebound evident across a range of sectors within the industry, according to Cedrik Lachance, director of global REIT research at Green Street. Lachance, who assumes his new role as Green Street’s director of research on July 1st, spoke on the REIT Report. From a GDP per...

High-quality office real estate in New York continued to attract investor interest throughout the pandemic, and the office market overall is “certainly improving,” according to Nadir Settles, head of New York office investment at Nuveen Real Estate. Speaking on the REIT Report, Settles noted that while there hasn’t been a lot of price discovery during the past year, the few transactions that did o...

In a REIT Report podcast interview, Robert L. Johnson discusses his early career, his business strategy, and his insights regarding race in America. Johnson is the founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies, LLC, which sponsored the formation of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ), and the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET). During the interview with Nathaalie Carey, Nareit senior vice presi...

REIT industry ESG data continues to improve both in quality and quantity, yet the lack of standardization remains a challenge, according to Bradford Stoesser, senior managing director and global industry analyst at Wellington Management. In a REIT Report interview, Stoesser said REIT ESG data is “markedly better than even just a few years ago.” “We are starting to see a proliferation of data provi...

The authors of a new book on REITs and real estate investment, Educated REIT Investing, say it is the first of its kind to target academic institutions, while still being concise enough to attract a general audience. The book is co-authored by Stephanie Krewson-Kelly, vice president of investor relations at Corporate Office Educated REIT InvestingProperties Trust (NYSE: OFC), and Glenn Mueller, a...

With 100% of its ground lease rents paid in 2020 and newly-received investment grade credit ratings, Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE) Chairman and CEO Jay Sugarman says the REIT is “really well positioned to keep growing.” Speaking on the REIT Report, Sugarman noted that despite the challenges of 2020, “last year actually proved how strong the business is.” Meanwhile, new ratings from Moody’s Investors...

Social media site Clubhouse is emerging as a new and innovative way to facilitate education about commercial real estate and to provide networking opportunities for individuals across the industry, according to David Auerbach, an institutional trader at World Equity Group, Inc. Clubhouse is an invitation-only iPhone social media app launched in 2020 that enables users to join live audio discussion...

Nareit’s T-Tracker fourth quarter 2020 data indicate that the REIT industry is recovering from its weakest levels seen during the pandemic. Speaking on the REIT Report, Nareit Senior Economist Calvin Schnure said the REIT industry is “showing a good continuing recovery, not a complete recovery, but a recovery from the worst part of the pandemic a year ago.” According to the T-Tracker, funds from o...

Differences in how real estate sectors perform have never been as “profound” as they are today, according to Michael Sonnenfeldt, founder and chairman of TIGER 21, a peer membership organization of high net worth current and former entrepreneurs, investors, and top executives. TIGER 21 members collectively manage personal assets of over $85 billion. Speaking on the REIT Report, Sonnenfeldt describ...

Matt Ritter, senior research consultant for NEPC, joined guest host Meredith Despins, Nareit senior vice president, investment affairs, for a special edition of The REIT Report podcast to discuss how REIT-based investment can deliver access to a 21st century real estate portfolio. NEPC is an independent investment consultant and private wealth advisor. Its clients—including public pensions, corpor...

The data center industry holds a leadership position on climate change issues as technological advances create greater efficiencies while economies of scale result in a lower energy profile, according to Kyle Myers, senior director of environmental health, safety, and sustainability at CyrusOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: CONE). Speaking on the REIT Report, Myers pointed to estimates that 1-3% of the entire po...

Past racially-explicit policies by federal, state, and local governments—especially those concerning housing—imposed a level of segregation on the United States that was so powerful it still determines the racial landscape of today, according to Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Rothstein is also a distinguished fellow of t...

Following a breakout year for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in 2020, activity is forecast to remain brisk in 2021, with REITs expected to take a keener interest in the structure, according to Jocelyn Arel and Audrey Leigh, partners at Goodwin. SPACs are a pool of capital formed through an initial public offering (IPO). SPAC sponsors go through the traditional IPO process, complete...