A delegation of NAREIT representatives traveled to Berlin in early September for meetings with some of the organization’s international partners.
On Sept. 7, the leaders of the Real Estate Equity Securitization Alliance (REESA) convened to discuss a range of issues. In addition to NAREIT, REESA consists of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA), the Association for Real Estate Securitization in Japan (ARES), the British Property Federation (BPF), the Property Council of Australia (PCA) and the Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac). Topics of discussion included financial standards initiatives.
Additionally, attendees explored “state of the art” REITs. This project entails the creation of a white paper compiling REESA members’ input regarding the primary reasons why REITs are so important in any national policy framework and the primary attributes that make up state of the art REITs, such as tax treatment, scope of activities and governance requirements.
Steve Wechsler, NAREIT’s president and CEO, and Bonnie Gottlieb, NAREIT’s senior vice president for industry and member affairs, attended the REESA meeting. They stayed on in Berlin for EPRA’s annual conference on Sept. 9 and were joined there by Meredith Despins, NAREIT’s vice president for investment affairs and investor education. Despins attended the event in advance of investor outreach meetings throughout Europe accompanied by EPRA staff members.
Wechsler and Sheldon Groner, NAREIT’s executive vice president for finance and operations, attended a meeting of the advisory council and board of governors of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) on Sept. 10. The program included an overview of the results of the 2015 GRESB Survey.
(Contact: Bonnie Gottlieb at bgottlieb@nareit.com)