Nareit’s REITweek: 2022 Investor Conference took place in-person in New York City this week for the first time in three years. The week kicked off with the sixth-annual REIT Investor Relations Symposium at the NYSE Big Board Club. Roughly 2,500 people came together over the course of the week to discuss REITs and REIT-based real estate investments, with 100-plus REITs and publicly traded real estate companies making investor presentations.
In conjunction with REITweek, John Worth, Nareit’s executive vice president for research and investor outreach, appeared on TD Ameritrade Network. Speaking with anchor Nicole Petallides from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Worth explained what investors need to know about investing in REITs and gave some key takeaways from REITweek. Among other points, he emphasized that REITs have strong current earnings, they are well-positioned for rising interest rates, and that REITs historically have fared well during times of high inflation.
Over the course of the conference, reporters from Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The Real Deal, CoStar, Biz Republic, Seoul Property Insight, and With Intelligence attended various investor company presentations, interviewed members, and met with Nareit staff to learn about Nareit’s latest data on REIT trends.
To close out REITweek, representatives of EPRA and Nareit conducted a joint outreach effort in New York with one of the largest investment consultants in the U.S. and two asset managers with significant investments in public real estate securities. During all three meetings, one of the key themes discussed was how public real estate may be added to private real estate investment to:
- Diversity and improve the risk/return provided by a real estate portfolio;
- Provide broad access to e-commerce property sectors; and
- Provide ease of access to global real estate.
It was acknowledged during discussions that while video conferencing prevalent during the pandemic is efficient, in-person conversations are deeper and more effective.
Throughout the week, Nareit shared event updates and conversations from investor presentations on social media:
The day before #REITweek, investor relations executives from more than 80 REITs gathered at the @NYSE for the sixth-annual #irsymposium for networking and programming tailored to the needs of REIT IR professionals. pic.twitter.com/XPvLoIb6jK
— Nareit (@REITs_Nareit) June 6, 2022
Cousins Properties CEO Colin Connolly says rents are 9% higher than year-end 2019 because an increasing percentage of demand is focused on shrinking supply of high quality, newer Sunbelt offices. #reitweek pic.twitter.com/5jVjf75nVC
— Nareit (@REITs_Nareit) June 7, 2022
Weyerhaeuser CEO Devon Stockfish said the company released its carbon record for the first time in 2021 which shows @Weyerhaeuser is more than 4 times carbon negative. #reitweek pic.twitter.com/HTW5brfVlg
— Nareit (@REITs_Nareit) June 8, 2022
The Nareit communications team also met with and conducted video interviews with 45 REIT CEOs and CFOs.
Additional REITweek coverage can be found here: