John Barwick

April and early May capital markets activity was highlighted by the announcement of three large REIT mergers. So far in 2021, U.S. REITs have raised over $26 billion in IPOs and secondary debt and equity offerings.

The FTSE EPRA Nareit Global Real Estate Extended Index Series broadens property sector coverage to include additional securities beyond those currently eligible for the FTSE EPRA Nareit Global Real Estate Index Series including Cell Towers and Timber.

REIT share prices rose slightly during the week ended December 18, with the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs index posting a weekly total return of 0.5% and a year-to-date return of -6.9%.

The new benchmark, which has been added to the widely-tracked FTSE Nareit U.S. Real Estate Index Series, includes listed REITs from the infrastructure, data center, and industrial property sectors.

The following additions, deletions and classification changes were agreed to and will be applied after the close of business on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020.

Through the year-to-date period as of the end of February, REITs outperformed the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market, the large cap S&P 500 and the small cap Russell 2000.

Compared against broad market benchmarks, REITs outperformed the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market by 1.4 percentage points, large cap S&P 500 by 1.3 percentage points, and the small cap Russell 2000 by 4.47 percentage points in January 2020.

The FTSE Nareit U.S. Real Estate Index Series posted positive total return performance across all property sectors in 2019.

In 2019, completed and pending mergers and acquisitions of U.S. REITs declined to $25.9 billion.

REITs were first deemed eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 in October 2001.