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Data Centers were the top performing Equity REIT property segment in the first six months of 2016 with a 37.82 percent total return.  Free Standing Retail, which consists of retail facilities occupied by a single tenant, was the second best performing segment with a 34.46 percent gain.

REITs continued to attract yield-seeking investors in the first half of the year.  The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index provided a dividend yield of 3.97 percent on June 30.  The FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index provided a dividend yield of 3.59 percent, and the FTSENAREIT Mortgage REITs Index’s dividend yield was 10.87 percent.  In comparison, the dividend yield of the S&P 500 was 2.17 percent.

Over the two market days following the Brexit vote, U.S. stock market volatility more than doubled, from 9.9 percent (below its inter-quartile range) to 22.0 percent (above its IQR)—but U.S. REIT market volatility only nudged up from 9.6 percent to 10.9 percent.

In a new, 17-year study of asset performance at 200 major pension funds, REITs were the top performing asset, with 12 percent average annual returns.  They also had the lowest allocation, at 0.6 percent of total fund assets.

Equity REITs significantly expanded their holdings of income producing real estate in recent years, buying a total of $260 billion of commercial property between 2011 and 2015.

The equity market capitalization of the U.S. REIT industry broke the $1 trillion mark in the second quarter of 2016.  On June 30, the 222 REITs in the FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index had a combined equity market capitalization of $1.06 trillion, up from a combined $984 billion for the 220 REITs in the same index at the end of the first quarter of the year. 

The study provides a comprehensive review of investment allocations and actual investment performance across 12 asset groups. The analysis looks at fund performance over 17 years, the longest period for which CEM had data for some of the assets studied, and it utilizes a proprietary dataset covering more than 200 public and private sector pension plans with over $3 trillion in combined assets under management. 

Dozens of students from universities across North America are competing in the Real Confidence™ University Portfolio Challenge II, a year-long competition for university students to gain hands-on learning experience in public and private commercial real estate investing. The students will take part in an investment simulation competition to manage a $1 billion real estate portfolio, indexed to well-known real estate benchmarks.

Stock exchange-listed U.S. REITs delivered total returns more than double those of the broader equity market in the year through July. 

The Free Standing Retail category led the Equity REIT market in the first seven months of the year with a 40.36 percent total return.

Six Equity REIT sectors had dividend yields at the end of July that exceeded the yield of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index’s 3.47 percent. 

Stock exchange-listed REITs combine the investment benefits of real estate with the benefits of a liquid market, which has become progressively more so.

REIT returns nearly doubled those of the broader equity market in the first eight months of 2016.  The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, the broadest benchmark of the U.S. REIT market containing both Equity and Mortgage REITs, delivered a 14.18 percent total return in the year through August.

Single Family Homes was the top performing property segment in the Equity REIT industry for 2016 through August.  The segment delivered a 32.56 percent total return, more than twice the total return of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index benchmark.

Investors seeking income found it in the Specialty REITs sector’s 6.22 percent dividend yield – nearly double the dividend yield of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index on August 31.

When Real Estate companies are removed from the Financials Sector of the S&P Dow Jones Indices and become constituents of a new Real Estate Sector on September 16, the sector will be the eight largest of the 11 headline sectors that make up the S&P 1,500 Index.