Nareit Developments

REITs' investments in sustainability keep rising, as do their returns on those investments, according to research on NAREIT's Leader in the Light (LITL) program.

A study of data from LITL found that participating companies increased their total investment in energy efficient projects by roughly 30 percent over their three-year moving average from 2011 to 2013. The study, which was conducted by RealFoundations, also determined that savings in 2014 from sustainability projects nearly doubled the previous three-year moving average. A similar comparison found that return on investment for those projects was up approximately 40 percent -- a 54 percent increase when compared with the ROI of 26 percent for projects between 2011 and 2013.

NAREIT welcomes new corporate member Buckingham Net Leased Properties Group Inc. Buckingham is a private Equity REIT that focuses on net-leased office and industrial buildings with tenants under long-term leases in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.

NAREIT submitted testimony in April 2015 to the Hawaii House of Representatives' Committees on Consumer Protection and Commerce and Judiciary in conjunction with a joint hearing on a proposal related to the dividends paid deduction (DPD).

The bill that was the subject of the hearing (S.B. 118, S.D. 1) originally proposed to eliminate the DPD for all real estate investment trusts in the state. It was changed to provide for a study on the impact of REITs operating in Hawaii.