For more than 50 years, NAREIT's mission has been to explain the REIT approach to real estate investment to investors, policymakers, and the public in the U.S. and around the world.
REITs today are more vital to the economy and the investment landscape than ever before – fulfilling their essential role of providing each and every individual with the opportunity to benefit from large, diversified holdings of real estate.
In the year ahead, NAREIT will be actively communicating the story of REITs to all of its audiences, including through videos like the one available here.
Some of the REIT facts highlighted in the video include:
- REITs were created to provide all people the opportunity to invest in income-producing real estate, including health care facilities, housing of all types, lodging, industrial facilities, infrastructure, offices, shopping centers, storage centers, and timberlands.
- REITs provide income by paying significant dividends to shareholders each year because they are required to distribute – not retain – earnings. Shareholders then pay taxes on the earnings.
- REITs provide investment diversification through access to the real estate asset class, helping to reduce portfolio risk for investors, savers and retirees.
- REITs have a proven track record of long-term performance, and they have become a distinct component of model individual and institutional investment portfolios.
- 167 REITs are traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ, representing more than $1 trillion of underlying real estate.
- More than 300 mutual funds and ETFs are devoted to REITs.
- REIT funds are included in more than 225,000 401(k) plans covering nearly 50 million workers. REITs are also included in nearly 75 percent of target date funds.
- U.S. REITs have become a successful model for the world -- more than 25 countries have adopted the U.S. approach to REITs.
Since their inception, REITs have helped the U.S. achieve important economic and social goals. When Congress created in 1960, it aimed to provide the average person with the ability to easily and effectively access investment in real estate to help secure a better future.
With U.S. REITs leading the way around the world, REIT-based real estate investment today is a well-accepted and widely recognized part of the investment landscape, bringing with it the benefits of current income and capital appreciation through long-term real estate investment.
As a result, savers, investors and retirees increasingly find the REIT approach to real estate investment playing a vital role in their investment and retirement planning, helping to advance our nation's economic security. That's the REIT story, and that's why NAREIT continues educating people on the REIT approach to real estate investment.
If you would like to post or distribute a version of the animated portion of the REIT Way video, contact Matt Bechard at mbechard@nareit.com for access to the file.