Nareit’s 2026 REIT Outlook addresses three themes shaping investor decision-making next year: valuation divergences, institutional education, and global opportunities.
REITs delivered solid operational results throughout 2025 despite macroeconomic headwinds. Comparing the first three quarters of 2025 to the same period in 2024, funds from operations (FFO) rose 6.2 percent, net operating income (NOI) increased 4.7 percent, and dividends grew 6.3 percent. Yet REIT valuations lagged as generalist equity investors favored tech stocks, widening the gap between REIT and broad equity multiples to levels seen only during the late 1990s tech boom, global financial crisis, and early pandemic. This divergence adds to a second divergence between REIT and private real estate valuations, which is tied to be the longest of its kind since the early 2000s. The outlook explains why itâ€
