Jeremy Banoff, vice chairman of Ferguson Partners and co-leader of the firm’s Compensation Consulting group, was a guest on the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast. Banoff discussed some of the key findings from the 2024 Nareit Compensation & Benefits survey, which is conducted by Ferguson Partners and sponsored by Nareit.
The participation rate for this year’s survey represents approximately 72% of the U.S. listed equity REIT industry’s total market capitalization.
This year’s survey showed a slight downward shift in voluntary turnover levels. Banoff explained that in the past few years, the baseline has been relatively higher, with “the pendulum tilted toward employees.” That’s now started to stabilize, with the pendulum swinging back toward employers, he said, although “not all the way.”
At the same time, ahead of anticipated interest rate cuts, companies put hiring on pause. The end result was that “there just haven’t been as many places to go,” Banoff said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Banoff noted that:
- Salary increase projections for 2025 are around 3.5%
- Hybrid models of three to four days in the office are the most common
- Many companies are revisiting employee benefits and fine-tuning them
- With a number of REITs turning to third party strategic capital as a source to fund investments and growth, questions about how you appropriately compensate those individuals are starting to evolve