The State Of REITs: April 2025 Edition

REIT Performance Overview - The REIT sector experienced a total return of -4.92% in March, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-4.1%) but faring better than the S&P 500 (-5.6%) and NASDAQ (-8.1%) [1] - The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) outperformed the average REIT with a return of -2.58% in March and a year-to-date return of +2.69% compared to -3.36% for the average REIT [1] - The spread between the 2025 FFO multiples of large cap REITs (18.1x) and small cap REITs (12.9x) increased, indicating that investors are paying 40.3% more for each dollar of FFO from large cap REITs [1] Performance by Market Capitalization - Micro cap REITs underperformed significantly with a return of -16.19%, while large cap REITs returned -2.04%, mid caps -2.63%, and small caps -4.16% [3] - Year-to-date, large cap REITs have outperformed small caps by 568 basis points [3] Property Type Performance - Only 33.33% of REIT property types had a positive total return in March, with a 14% spread between the best (Casino +2.40%, Single Family Housing +2.00%) and worst performing property types (Office -11.60%, Hotel -11.11%) [5] - In the first quarter of 2025, Data Centers (-16.35%), Office (-15.95%), and Hotels (-15.74%) were the worst performers, while Health Care (+10.87%), Casino (+10.24%), and Timber (+9.56%) led the sector [6] Average Returns by Property Type - The average returns for various property types in March were as follows: - Office: -11.60% - Hotel: -11.11% - Casino: +2.40% - Single Family Housing: +2.00% - REIT Average: -4.92% [6] Price/FFO Multiples - The average P/FFO for the REIT sector decreased from 14.3x to 13.9x in March, with 27.8% of property types experiencing multiple expansion and 66.7% seeing contraction [8] - Data Centers (25.2x), Land (23.8x), and Multifamily (20.5x) have the highest average multiples, while Hotels (6.2x) and Offices (8.4x) are the only types with single-digit FFO multiples [8] Individual Security Performance - Peakstone Realty Trust (PKST) was the best performing REIT in March with a return of +13.10%, followed by Crown Castle (CCI) at +12.44% and CareTrust REIT (CTRE) at +11.77% [10] - Wheeler REIT (WHLR) continued its decline with a staggering -75.88% return in March, marking a -95.31% drop in the first three months of 2025 [11] Dividend Yield Insights - High dividend yields are a significant attraction for investors in the REIT sector, especially as many REITs are trading below their NAV, leading to opportunities for attractive yields [15]