Nareit’s Investor Outreach team’s January itinerary has included a trip to Los Angeles. During this road show, Nareit staff met with a diverse range of six organizations in the institutional investment market controlling $5.5 billion in assets. The meetings included visits with three of the top five investment managers in L.A. by assets under management and the largest L.A.-based investment consultant by assets under advisement.
The focus of the discussion in each of the six meetings varied to a significant degree as did what internal, academic, and sponsored research was presented to each organization. For some of the visits, the message began at a very fundamental level. The focus for these meetings was on making the case for real estate as a core asset class representing the third largest asset in the U.S. market basket and for the fact that an investment in REITs is an investment in real estate. In instances where organizations have already embraced real estate, the focus was more on the utility REITs bring to investment portfolios and the fact that REITs have both strategic and tactical portfolio applications. Using a combination of internal and sponsored research, practical examples were provided of how REITs may be employed within institutional investment portfolios. In response to growing investor interest, several of our meetings featured an outlook on the current domestic macroeconomy and its implications for commercial real estate and REITs, as well as the global real estate market.
Finally, it is notable that in a majority of the meetings, investors had inquiries about how ESG is being addressed by the REIT industry. ESG has increasingly been a topic of interest expressed by investors in Nareit outreach visits.
(Contact: Kurt Walten at kwalten@nareit.com)