Nareit's REIT Report Podcast

Rob Main, managing partner at the shareholder advisory firm Jasper Street, joined the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. He discussed sustainability reporting and practical steps REITs can take to navigate the proxy season.Main described the corporate mood heading into proxy season as “anxious.” For many companies, however, as long as they've been engaging with their investors, have good disclosure, and aren't viewed as outliers by institutional investors, “they're probably going to have a good proxy season,” he said.Investors, meanwhile, are “cautious,” he said, and are likely to be more “tight-lipped” given recent SEC guidance. At the same time, their core belief about the importance of strong governance practices remains intact.

Danny Ismail, co-head of strategic research at Green Street, joined Nareit’s REIT Report podcast to discuss how real estate and REITs are positioned in the current highly volatile market environment created by last week's White House announcement on tariffs.Ismail said there's good reason to fear a slowdown in economic growth resulting from an increase in tariffs, not just from potentially higher import costs, but also a pullback in business investment as well as consumer spending.As for the market response, “we'll see how the next few weeks shake out, but thus far REITs and real estate appear to be a relative safe haven,” Ismail said. One reason for that is the starting valuation of REITs prior to the tariff announcement, where REITs looked attractive relative to the S&P 500. “REITs came into this environment on the cheaper side, while private real estate came in looking fairly valued,” Ismail noted.

Sherry Rexroad, executive vice president and CFO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM), was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast.Rexroad discussed ways to work within the current environment of shifting interest rates, recession worries, and geopolitical tensions in order to remain consistent on strategy. “It’s really important to differentiate between short-term volatility and secular change. Short-term volatility needs to be managed and monitored. It can be a distraction if you let it be,” she said.She noted that between 2019 and 2022, Piedmont shifted $1.4 billion of assets, or roughly a third of the portfolio, out of Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and into Atlanta and Dallas.

Vikram Malhotra, managing director, real estate equities and research at Mizuho, joined the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast to share some of the findings from recent Mizuho research into the economic and investment implications likely to result from an aging population.Malhotra noted that the 75-plus cohort in the United States is set to grow at about 4% per annum over the next five to 10 years. By 2030, the group will represent 10% of the total population, up from 7.5% today. At the same time, their spending is expected to grow over 80%, or $700 billion, through 2030.

Nareit Hawaii Executive Director Gladys Quinto Marrone was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Marrone discussed the mission of Nareit Hawaii, including its community outreach work.As to how the Nareit Hawaii Community Giving Initiative, established by the Nareit Foundation, goes about selecting the programs it chooses to support, Marrone noted, “We try to ensure that grantees come from all around the state and serve as many people as possible.”Typically, four to five Nareit Foundation grants have been awarded annually, totaling about $350,000 to $400,000. In addition, five to six grants a year totaling $150,000 to $200,000, from Nareit Hawaii are awarded to nonprofits supporting a variety of charitable causes.https://nareithawaii.com/

Ji Zhang, portfolio manager for global real estate at Cohen & Steers, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Zhang spoke about her firm’s recent entry into the active exchange traded fund space, including the Cohen & Steers Real Estate Active ETF.Zhang explained that the ETF is designed specifically to invest in “high conviction ideas” in U.S. REITs, while opportunistically investing in international and other real estate-related securities. “The ultimate goal is to provide total return and portfolio diversification,” she said.The backdrop for REIT fundamentals is “quite healthy,” supported by steady demand and meaningfully below-trend supply, Zhang said

Bill Ferguson, co-chairman and CEO of Ferguson Partners, and Mike Cordingley, who leads Ferguson’s North American Management Consulting and Leadership Consulting Business Units, were guests on Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Ferguson and Cordingley discussed their latest research into REIT CEO succession trends and shared best practices for transition planning.“Succession is, if not the highest priority for the board, one of the highest priorities,” Ferguson said. He noted that there were seven CEO succession events per year from 2013 to 2022. In 2023, there were nine and in 2024 that increased to 12.Cordingley noted that the acceleration is set to continue for a number of reasons, including increasing activist involvement and an aging leadership cohort. “The average age per REIT CEO is 60 and typical retirement is occurring around 64,” he said.

Maaike van Bragt, senior research associate, and Chris Flynn, head of product development at CEM Benchmarking, were guests on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Van Bragt and Flynn discussed some of the findings from the 2024 CEM Benchmarking study into investment performance across various asset classes.In research sponsored by Nareit, CEM Benchmarking took a comprehensive look at investment allocations and realized investment performance across 12 asset classes over a 25-year period (1998–2022). While private equity was the strongest performer over that period, with an average net return of about 12%, REITs and U.S. small cap stocks came in second place with average returns of about 9.7%. Returns for private real estate were about 7.7% during the 25-year period.Van Bragt said CEM’s research “really shows that on a net return basis, REITs have done really well in the past 25 years. And so if you have real estate in your asset allocation, I think you should seriously consider using REITs or at least adding them to it.”Read the CEM Study: https://www.reit.com/data-research/research/updated-cem-benchmarking-study-highlights-reit-performance

Melinda McLaughlin, global head of research at Prologis, Inc . (NYSE: PLD), was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. She discussed broad trends impacting logistics today, including global trade, delivery speeds, new construction, e-commerce, rising barriers to supply, standout global markets, and more.McLaughlin said 2025 looks set to be a “solid year” for both consumption and global trade, based on strong labor markets. E-commerce, meanwhile, is “absolutely gaining market share in all of our markets around the world,” she noted.At the same time, there's been a lack of construction for the largest logistics buildings since 2022, McLaughlin pointed out. “Today, and looking at 2025 as a whole, we see deliveries down 35% year over year for all types of logistics real estate, but that number is a 65% decline for bulk buildings, so really setting the stage for demand and supply to rebalance and maybe even have some scarcity in certain markets.”

Allan Swaringen, president and CEO of JLL Income Property Trust, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast.JLL IPT is a daily NAV REIT that owns and manages a diversified portfolio of apartment, industrial, grocery-anchored retail, health care, and office properties located in the United States.Swaringen said JLL IPT’s mission is to be a hybrid investment that balances the stability of performance in the private real estate markets with the same history of consistent, growing dividends that public REIT investors look for.