What is a REIT? A REIT is a corporation that either owns interests in commercial real estate (Equity REITs) or acts as a lender (Mortgage REITs). All REITs are exempt from Federal income taxes provided they adhere to a number of regulations; most notably, they must payout at least 90% of net income as dividends. […]

On February 15, 2019, shares of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) fell 14% after the company announced that it was losing some contracts with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).  XPO is a third party logistics provider (or 3PL) that received $900 million in revenue from AMZN in 2018 for delivering packages to its customers.  Because of AMZN’s decision […]

In March, the Chilton REIT team participated in the Citi Global Real Estate Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, attended by over 185 CEOs of real estate companies from around the world. Perhaps slightly influenced by the +12.0% year to date total return of the MSCI US REIT Index as of March 1, 2019 (the day […]

Commercial real estate is one of the oldest industries in the world, thus making it one of the most mature.  As it has developed, transparency has increased, making it harder to find opportunities for significant wealth creation.  The single family residential real estate industry is even older, and therefore one would think it presents even […]

The data center REIT sector had a rough year in 2018.  For the first time ever, its total return, -16.1% on an equal-weighted basis and -13.7% on a market cap weighted basis, was more than 650 basis points (or bps) behind the -4.5% and -7.1% total returns of the MSCI US  REIT Index (Bloomberg: RMS […]

The retail REIT sector (Bloomberg: BBRERTL), which includes malls and shopping centers, underperformed the MSCI US REIT Index (Bloomberg: RMZ) in both 2016 and 2017 by an average of 870 basis points (bps) on a total return basis.  Year to date through November, retail REITs have continued the trend of underperformance, though the 110 bps […]

The office sector, particularly in the public REIT universe, boasts some of the best-looking buildings among all property types.  Called ‘trophy properties’, they are excellent material for press coverage, property tours, and annual report covers; however, they do not always translate into superior long-term total returns.  Case and point: the completion of a new ‘tallest […]

Since we published our March 2018 REIT Outlook titled, “Equity REITs at Bargain Prices: An Asymmetric Opportunity,” on March 1, the FTSE NAREIT Equity REIT Index (Bloomberg: FNRE) has produced a total return of +14.1% through September 24.  This compares to +8.8% for the S&P 500 (Bloomberg: SPX) over the same period.   Interestingly, the 10 […]

US REITs are better known for being an inflation hedge, but investors often overlook their proven ability to hedge against international trade and currency risks.  As of August 31, President Donald Trump has slapped nearly $30 billion of tariffs on $120 billion of US imported goods, and he has threatened an additional $170 billion of […]

Self storage is a niche property type within commercial real estate. Self storage demand benefits from all aspects of life—in good times due to home renovations, new jobs/relocation, and summertime storage between college semesters, but also during difficult times such as dealing with a divorce, the passing of a family member, and job dislocation.  The […]