Andrew Alperstein, real estate partner at PwC, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Alperstein said a key theme from the PwC/Urban Land Institute Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2025 report is that commercial real estate is at the outset of a new cycle, one that is likely to result in increased activity and improved momentum in the year ahead.

“We were pleasantly surprised and pleased to see an improvement in sentiment as we looked at our 2025 publication relative to 2024 and 2023,” Alperstein said, “particularly given we've had a challenging couple of years with higher interest rates and really a lack of transaction activity.”

Alperstein added that the interest rate environment forms “a very important piece of the momentum that we hope to see going into next year.”

In this episode of the REIT Report special series “Building to Zero,” Duane Desiderio, senior vice president at the Real Estate Roundtable (RER) shares a recently released 20-point policy guide which outlines lessons learned from the building owner perspective over the past seven years since the first building performance standard was implemented in 2017. 

Since Local Law 97 was passed by the City Council in New York City as part of the Climate Mobilization Act in April 2019, commercial building owners in the United States have experienced the rise in regulations know as Building Performance Standards (BPS), which are intended to regulate the use of energy in existing buildings. Buildings owners are currently navigating a patchwork of law with various rules, processes, and compliance pathways in cities and states across the county.

“A good way to start the conversation is by drawing a bit of a contrast to the climate and energy policies on buildings that we've seen come from the federal level, where the emphasis has been on carrots not sticks, incentives to encourage buildings to push the envelope to reduce emissions to become more efficient. At the state and local level unlike the federal level, these BEPS laws would impose mandatory limits on buildings to either reduce their energy by certain amounts every year or to reduce their carbon emissions every year or in some cases both.”

Sally Ann Flood, vice chair and U.S. real estate sector leader at Deloitte, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. She reviewed highlights of the firm’s 2025 commercial real estate outlook, which indicates that next year could be a potential turning point for the sector.

“After two consecutive years where most survey respondents expected revenue declines, this year 88% of global respondents now report they expect revenues to increase going forward,” Flood said.

Jacob Rowden, senior manager for U.S. office research at JLL, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. He noted that within the last year, a top-down recovery has been evident in the office sector that is now beginning to spill over more broadly.

Rowden noted that factors supporting a more positive direction for the sector include employees spending more time in the office, a lack of new construction, and a record volume of office inventory being removed for conversions or redevelopments to other property types.

Jeremy Banoff, vice chairman of Ferguson Partners and co-leader of the firm’s Compensation Consulting group, was a guest on the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast. Banoff discussed some of the key findings from the 2024 Nareit Compensation & Benefits survey, which is conducted by Ferguson Partners and sponsored by Nareit.

The participation rate for this year’s survey represents approximately 72% of the U.S. listed equity REIT industry’s total market capitalization.

This year’s survey showed a slight downward shift in voluntary turnover levels. Banoff explained that in the past few years, the baseline has been relatively higher, with “the pendulum tilted toward employees.” That’s now started to stabilize, with the pendulum swinging back toward employers, he said, although “not all the way.”

Brandon Pizzola, economist in EY’s Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST) practice, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Nareit commissioned EY to estimate the economic contribution of U.S. REITs in 2023, the most recent year of complete information. The data showed that REITs supported an estimated 3.5 million full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs and $278 billion of labor income.

“The one thing to flag is that REITs continue to grow,” Pizzola said. He pointed out that in 2021, the economic footprint of REITs was 3.2 million FTE jobs, with that number growing to 3.4 million in 2022, before rising again in 2023. The data encompasses public listed, public non-listed, and private REITs.

Todd Kellenberger, REIT client portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Kellenberger discussed how REITs are likely to perform amid either an economic soft landing or mild recession, as well as the impact of lower interest rates on the sector.

“The general trajectory of where markets are headed is favorable for real estate,” Kellenberger said. He noted that the Federal Reserve is seeking to ease monetary conditions to avoid an economic hard landing, “and that will importantly bring down the cost of capital for real estate and likely bring a recovery to property values.”

Mike Acton, head of research at AEW Capital Management, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast.

Acton discussed the broader macro backdrop for commercial real estate. While markets are excited about the prospect of interest rate cuts, that sentiment is set against concern about potential recession and possible policy changes after the election. “It's a little bit of a mixed bag as far as the broader outlook goes.”

During the interview, Acton also noted that at this stage, most investors have rebalanced their portfolios along property sector lines. Going forward, it's likely going to be less about what specific property sectors investors are targeting and probably a lot more about the quality of the individual properties and locations. “Micro locations are becoming much, much more important in the investment decision than say market decisions,” he said.

Jeff Edison, chairman and CEO of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: PECO), and James Corl, head of the private real estate group at Cohen & Steers, were guests on the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast.

PECO and Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT, Inc. (CNSREIT) have formed a joint venture focused on acquiring open-air grocery-anchored shopping centers. The joint venture is 80% owned by CNSREIT and 20% by PECO and is targeting $300 million in equity. In the interview, Edison and Corl discuss the clear benefits they see from their partnership, their shared perspectives on what makes a strong investment in the sector, and the outlook for future growth.

Brendan Cooper and Jared Morris, directors at Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), joined the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast to discuss how TRS tactically invested in REITs during a period of public and private real estate valuation divergence.

In 2022, the TRS Strategic Property REIT Execution and Delivery (SPREAD) team were monitoring a sell-off in public REITs and were ready to take action. One quarter of TRS’s total $400 million commitment was initially invested in December 2022, half was deployed in March 2023, and the remaining quarter was invested in October 2023. During that period, the internal rate of return achieved by TRS was 17.1%.

Colin Trovato, portfolio manager at Ranger Global Real Estate Advisors, was a guest on the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast. Trovato discussed housing trends and the role of the single family rental (SFR) sector in helping to alleviate the shortage of supply.

Trovato discussed the impact of rising interest rates on home ownership and the demand for SFRs. Higher rates since 2022 have increased home buying costs and reduced housing inventory, as many current homeowners are reluctant to move due to their favorable mortgage rates. This scarcity has boosted demand for SFRs, making renting more attractive compared to buying.