The National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) has released fourth quarter 2020 results for the NCREIF Property Index (NPI). The NPI reflects investment performance for 9,289 commercial properties, totaling $700 billion of market value.
The quarterly total return was 1.15 percent, up from 0.74 percent in the prior quarter. The return for the current quarter was the highest for the year 2000 although off the highs from the prior year. This is an unleveraged return for what is primarily “core” real estate held by institutional investors throughout the United States. Although leverage was negative for the quarter, the leveraged properties also managed to have a slightly positive return of 0.33 percent.
The total return of 1.15 percent for the quarter was primarily due to an income return of 1.01 percent. Price levels before capital expenditures increased by 0.49 percent, but the capital expend
