NAREIT provides comments on FASB proposal
NAREIT has provided a comment letter on the proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) to amend FASB Statement No. 132, Employers' Disclosures About Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits. The letter recommended clarifying the FSP to provide employers with the flexibility to classify their investments in REITs and publicly traded real estate equities in the real estate category, the equity securities category or both, depending on whether employers' hold the securities in their real estate allocations, their equity securities allocations, or both. To read the letter, click here. 5/7/08
Texas Pension Fund to Invest With Parkway Properties
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas plans to invest $262.5 million in a fund managed by Parkway Properties. The investment is earmarked for Parkway Properties Office Fund II LP. To read the story in the Dallas Business Journal,
click here. 5/7/08
Duke, CBRE Partner for $800 Million JV
Duke Realty Corp. and CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust formed an $800 million joint venture to invest in new industrial projects over a three-year period. The first investments include 5.2 million square feet of space and total $250 million. To read the story in Commercial Property News,
click here. 5/7/08
NAREIT Wins Corporate Excellence Award
The International Real Estate Society (IRES) presented NAREIT with its 2008 IRES Corporate Excellence Award earlier this month at the American Real Estate Society Annual Meeting in Captiva Island, Fla. The IRES Corporate Excellence Award is awarded to organizations that demonstrate outstanding leadership in fostering the growth and evolution of the international real estate industry. To read more, click here. 4/24/08
Potlach Spin-Off May Create Pure-Play REIT
Potlatch Corp. is considering a tax-free spin-off of its pulp-based businesses. The company said the spin-off would create two stand-alone companies, with the timber assets having revenues of about $1.2 billion last year. To read more, click here. 4/18/08
REALpac Issues RFPs for Research
The Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac) is committed to the development of real estate research and has issued its Spring 2008 request for proposals to undertake insightful research that explores issues of importance to the investment real property industry in Canada. To view the RFP for research funding, click here. 4/14/08
Blackstone Closes $11B Real Estate Fund
The Blackstone Group LP has closed Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI with capital commitments totaling $10.9 billion. According to a company statement, this fund was the largest real estate opportunity fund ever raised. The firm has raised a total of nine real estate funds since inception, both funds for global investing and funds with a specific focus on Western Europe, with total capital commitments of $25.7 billion. To read the article from GlobeSt.com, click here. 4/2/08
Liberty Property, CommerzLeasing Close on $324 Million in Permanent Financing for Philadelphia Tower
A joint venture between Liberty Property Trust and CommerzLeasing und Immobilien AG closed on $324 million in permanent financing for the Comcast Center tower that's nearing completion in Philadelphia, Liberty said Monday. To read the story,
click here. 4/1/08
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Housing Turmoil Benefits Apartment REITs
With mortgage holders continuing to default, the rental market has remained strong. "People are working, and they need places to live; if they can't buy, they'll rent," said Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager of the Permanent Portfolio Fund. To read the story in Investment News,
click here. 5/8/08
REITs Deliver Strong First Quarter Results
Half of the 64 REITs that had reported first-quarter results as of May 2 had exceeded analysts expectations. "We're not getting these monstrous misses that some observers might have expected going into earnings season," said Richard Anderson, director of REIT research for BMO Capital Markets. To read the Wall Street Journal story, click here. 5/7/08
AvalonBay Prospers With Development Strategy
Apartment REIT AvalonBay has prospered through the collapse of the U.S. single-family housing market with a strategy based on developing apartment communities in major cities with high economic and regulatory barriers to entry for apartment and condo developers. The company's properties are 97% occupied and their monthly rent is nearly triple the national average. To read the story in Forbes,
click here. 5/1/08
Bargains to be Found in REITs
A Zacks Investment Research analyst thinks investors can find bargains in REITs and is expecting first quarter FFO growth between 3% and 5% for the REITs covered by the firm. To read the story,
click here. 5/1/08
REIT Yields Attract Investors
High dividend yields on REITs have made them a haven for investors seeking refuge from the credit crisis, a faltering economy and a barrage of corporate-earnings shortfalls. REITs have posted a total return of about 6.5% this year, with the dividend yield of 5.3% accounting for most of the gain. By comparison, the S&P 500 is down 6.4% for the year. To read the story in Investment News,
click here. 4/30/08
REIT Dividend Yields Lures Investors
Jittery investors, shaken by the credit crisis, faltering economy and barrage of corporate-earnings shortfalls, appear to be turning to REITs for refuge, thanks to their enticing dividend yields. To read the Investment News article, click here. 4/29/08
Real Estate Investors Look Outside U.S.
Many U.S. investors, opportunity funds and real estate investment trusts have been scouting for real estate bargains in high-growth areas of the world, where the local economies are growing and demand for real estate is escalating. To read the Investment News article, click here. 4/29/08
Internet Video Growth Spurs Data Center Demand
The growing popularity of Internet video and expanding corporate IT requirements are spurring demand for data center space and driving up occupancy rates in these facilities, creating growth opportunities for data center REITs. To read the story in CoStar News,
click here. 4/24/08
REITs Rebound, Offer Long-term Opportunity
REITs have outperformed the overall U.S. stock market so far in 2008, Richard Shaw writes in a Seeking Alpha analysis. Shaw is a fee-based investment adviser in Connecticut that advised clients to avoid REITs in January 2007 and again in August of last year. "We did not say then, but clearly if an investor saw a steady shift from lower to higher yield by REITs, a gradual return to the class could have been considered. In fact, those who took that approach in 2008 have done well," Shaw said. To read the story in Seeking Alpha,
click here. 4/24/08
Health Care REITs a Healthy Play
With returns north of 9% so far this year and their dividend yield outpacing 10-year Treasuries, health care REITs might be one of the safest investments out there for investors looking to avoid current market volatility. To read the story in Investment News,
click here. 4/22/08
REITs Outperform S&P Over Past Decade
Investors who looked to real estate investment trusts for dividends have also been getting strong capital growth. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts says its composite equity REIT index has seen compounding returns of 10.22% over the past 10 years. The S&P 500 posted average gains of 4.07% over the same time period. To read the story in ETFguide,
click here. 4/22/08
REITs Offer Investors Inflation Protection
REITs are generally a good hedge against inflation, John Waggoner writes in a Courier-Post financial column. They may be vulnerable if the economy slows, but they offer solid yields of about 5%. To read his article, click here. 4/18/08
Swensen's Investment Advice Includes REITs
The turmoil in the stock market has a lot of people nervous about their retirement savings. If only they had David Swensen investing their money. Swensen manages Yale University's endowment. Last year, he made a 28 percent return, adding a whopping $5 billion to Yale's endowment, which is now valued at $22 billion. And he continues to advocate a 20% allocation to REITs. To learn more from Swensen, click here. 4/4/08
REITs Ripe for the Picking
One of real estates most highly regarded portfolio managers, Marty Cohen, sees growth potential and opportunity in the commercial real estate market. "This is probably one of the most exciting times," Mr. Cohen, co-chairman and co-chief executive of Cohen & Steers Inc., said. He added that, due to the credit market crisis, REITs are trading at the biggest discount ever to the value of their underlying assets and that perception - not fundamentals - have depressed REIT share prices. To read the story in Investment News, click here. 4/3/08
Stein: REITs a Bargain
Ben Stein, economist and Wall Street pundit, says U.S. and Canadian real estate equities are undervalued. Stein told a CIBC World Markets real estate equities conference that he had never seen a bigger bargain than REITs. "I'm buying all [the REIT units] I can get my little paws on. These are God's gift to retirees," Stein said. To read the story, click here. 4/3/08
REITs Show Upside in First Quarter
Stocks of real estate investment trusts staged a modest rally in the first quarter, driven by strong gains in two industries benefiting from the housing bust: operators of apartment buildings and self-storage space, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. To read the article, click here. 4/2/08
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