Uma Moriarity, senior investment strategist at CenterSquare Investment Management, was a guest on the latest episode of the REIT Report podcast. She assessed the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates and noted that, historically, REITs tend to outperform core private real estate once the Fed starts a rate cutting cycle.
“REITs are going to price in the impact of what's happening for a rate environment much faster than what you see on the private real estate side. You tend to see these public markets get a bit more excited and price this in earlier,” Moriarity said.
She also noted that a lot of the broader institutional investor base “have been waiting for this kind of easing monetary policy environment as it relates to deploying assets into real estate.”
Moriarity pointed to growing interest in global REITs as investors take advantage of valuations that are lower than in private markets, alongside access to niche property sectors that are not readily available elsewhere.
Meanwhile, she discussed the ongoing valuation gap between public and private real estate and high conviction property sectors for CenterSquare. Sectors that have seen no new supply, such as shopping centers, are especially attractive. “We're really seeing some great fundamentals there,” Moriarity said.