Portfolio manager of Fidelity Global Real Estate Fund, Steve Buller, joins us today to share his outlook for global real estate and where he is finding opportunities. Inflation is on everyone’s minds, and Steve notes that inflation can be good for real estate securities overall, but the potential for rising interest rates raise some doubts. Steve shares that office demand will be disrupted by remote work in the future as flexible scheduling will impact the need for office space going forward. Steve describes a war for talent happening, where employees are choosing companies that have flexible policies, and this is impacting how companies react. Steve also unpacks what this means for cities and downtown urban centres. Looking at Steve’s current positioning he shares he’s balancing the consistent long-term growers like logistics facilities and data centres, with the reopening trade such as hotels, gaming, retail, and assisted living. One shift Steve notes is the traditional malls in the past catered towards apparel shopping but now sees an increase in leisure activities. Also, with retail logistics, stores are leasing the same amount of space as before but with less space allocated to foot traffic and more for inventory and prepping online orders.

Recorded on October 7, 2021.

Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_buller_07oct.pdf