REITs rise 0.6% in July

Data center and regional mall REITs outperformed other property types in July, according to the FTSE Nareit U.S. Real Estate Index Series, returning nearly 4.9 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, compared with a return of 0.6 percent for the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index. The total returns for data center and mall REITs also exceeded the S&P 500 Index return of 3.6 percent in July.

In the broader retail sector, a bifurcation is opening up between the regional mall REITs (which often have high-quality portfolios that may be well-positioned to weather changes in the retail landscape) and shopping center REITs, which had a total return of 0.1 percent in July and are down 4.5 percent year-to-date.

But while the retail sector is facing headwinds, such as an increase in online shopping, the industrial sector has been backed by tailwinds. July, however, showed a pullback in industrial REIT performance. The sector fell 0.5 percent in the past month, though industrial REITs are up 5.2 percent year-to-date. Self-storage REITs, up 7.4 percent year-to-date, also saw a pullback in July, falling 4.4 percent.