Listed Real Estate Offers Investors Ready Access to Specialty Property Types

Andrew Duffy, co-founder, managing partner, chief investment officer, and senior portfolio manager of Ranger Global Real Estate Advisors, an independent investment advisor, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast.

Duffy spoke about: the state of commercial real estate today and how Ranger Global distinguishes between the performance of geographies and property types; the appeal of next generation property types; the advantages and risks of investing domestically versus globally; the dislocation between listed and private real estate; and the benefits of investing in listed real estate funds.

During the interview, Duffy noted that:

• Despite the current macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical stress, commercial real estate fundamentals “are healthy in most countries and most property types. That said, there are some exceptions in both direction.”
• The uncorrelated nature of the demand and the resulting growth and returns can dampen the overall volatility on a diversified portfolio with significant enough specialty exposure.
• Specialty property types and the companies that own and manage them are expanding faster, both in number and size, outside the U.S. “For the property types that offer the most bang for the buck, we're finding them increasingly more available outside the U.S.”
• Valuations in the private market will decline, “and that's how the spread between public and private markets that currently exists is going to be arbitraged away.”
• Specialty property types are much more readily available today in the public market, “thus supporting an investor in a fund that owns listed real estate, the ability to gain as much exposure as they would like to the higher growth, lower correlation specialty property types.”