In this special episode of the REIT Report, part of an ongoing series, “Building Resilience,” covering issues facing the REIT industry as it remains focused on investing for the long term, Holly Neber, chief resilience officer at AEI Consultants joins Nareit’s Jessica Long, senior vice president of environmental stewardship and sustainability, to discuss turning climate data into action at the property level using industry leading best practices captured in the new ASTM standard, Property Resilience Assessment. 

What's the property worth? What are the potential hazards, the risks?

“The ASTM guide was never meant to be something extra or something brand new, but really a roadmap consistent with what firms were already doing to provide an industry-accepted standard so we can all refer back to it. So all the parties agree on a common approach to communicating the findings.” She goes on to explain the three parts of the assessment, including identifying property-specific exposure to identified risks, to estimate potential damage and downtime of identified risk exposure, and, if necessary, develop specific recommendations to address concerns. 

Mike Watts, CBRE’s president of investor leasing in the Americas, was a guest on the latest episode of the REIT Report. Watts focused on trends in office supply and leasing, the impact of office conversions, tenant expectations toward amenities, and more. 

Watts noted that CBRE expects new office deliveries in 2025 to be about 25% of what they were in 2019. Office deliveries are not expected to pick up in 2026 either. Lack of new construction at the top of the office market creates a ripple effect as demand shifts to lower tier assets. Class B office assets still retain appeal for certain office tenants, he pointed out. 

Meanwhile, Watts described the tenant experience as “more important than ever,” with companies keen to create a positive work environment for all levels of employees, rather than just senior level staff. Also important today is the concept of “how the building meets the street,” he said, namely access to retail that meets the specific needs of tenants and that encourages companies to renew their leases.

Rich Hill, global head of real estate research at Principal Asset Management, was a guest on the latest episode of the REIT Report podcast. He shared insights into sentiment within the REIT space today, public-private valuations, foreign fund flows into U.S. listed real estate, the elements of a resilient, growth-oriented real estate investment portfolio, and more. 

Hill stressed that commercial real estate should be viewed as a “diversified portfolio of various different property types, not just in the U.S. but in Europe. There is an opportunity someplace, somewhere in the world to add value through listed REITs and we think that will continue.” 

He noted that adding listed REITs to a private portfolio of real estate reduces volatility. “We advocate for having a 10% to 30% allocation to listed REITs within a private portfolio of real estate because we really do think it optimizes portfolios,” he said. 

Nareit Senior Vice President for Research Ed Pierzak was a guest on the latest episode of the REIT Report to share highlights of Nareit’s 2025 mid-year update. 

Pierzak reviewed expectations for the REIT industry coming into the year, and how the reality has played out in recent months. He described the first half of the year as a roller coaster ride for REIT investors, with turbulence resulting from new directions in trade policy and economic uncertainty. 

“The current thinking is that the ride may have ended at mid-year, really kind of leaving us in the same place as we started the year. But if the ride restarts due to the new tariff actions, the experience of the last six months really gives us confidence that REITs are well positioned to weather additional volatility and thrive,” Pierzak said. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Pierzak reviewed the state of REIT balance sheets and the impact of higher interest rates, among other topics.

Earnest Sweat, a tech innovation expert, was a guest on the latest edition of the REIT Report podcast. In the first of a three-part miniseries, Sweat began the process of examining the intersection of AI with the REIT sector.

Sweat is a venture capitalist and general partner at Stresswood, an early-stage fund focused on backing exceptional founders building the next wave of enterprise technology.

Sweat said technology can be beneficial because “companies are all expected to produce more with fewer resources.” He stressed the importance for REIT leaders to speak with middle management to ascertain where AI can handle repeatable tasks, and to stress to management that technology is not a “precursor to them losing their jobs.”

Adrianna Giesey, senior portfolio manager at Russell Investments, shared how the firm is providing investors with access to modern economy real estate by incorporating a specialty sector REIT strategy.

“We like the REIT market to gain access to the specialty sectors, which is a nice compliment to a core real estate portfolio,” Giesey said. She added that Russell Investments expects these modern economy sectors, such as data centers and single family rentals, to see stronger cash flow growth over the medium term.

The best way for investors to gain access to modern economy real estate is to trim traditional private real estate holdings and add listed specialty sectors, Giesey said. “This is the most efficient and low-cost way to access these specialty sectors at scale. We've helped clients do this in the past, and it's been a success all around.”

Conor Flynn, CEO of Kimco Realty (NYSE: KIM) and Nareit 2025 Chair, joined the 500th episode of the REIT Report to provide a close-up view of how a leading retail REIT is navigating today's complex market environment.

Flynn highlighted the resiliency of both the consumer and tenant base in the open-air shopping center space, pointing out that there’s been 13 years of virtually no new supply.

“That obviously is a big benefit and it's showcasing in the occupancy side because occupancies now are at all-time highs. Even with some disruption from tariffs and some smaller bankruptcies, retailers are continuing to expand their footprint and have identified that the store base is really the best opportunity, and the most profitable, to service the consumer in as many ways as possible,” Flynn said.

He noted that convenience and value are “the sweet spot of where consumers are focused today.”

Matt Werner, managing director & senior portfolio manager at Chilton Capital Management, joined the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast to discuss why investing in an active REIT strategy today is attractive for a number of reasons.

Werner said tariff-induced volatility is a “perfect environment” for an active REIT strategy “because we're able to take advantage of things that we think are selling off more than they should or trimming things that maybe are outperforming our expectations.”

He added that across almost all property types, REITs are seeing “growing dividends at the same time as being on the cusp of accelerating earnings.” Valuations also look “pretty fair, especially relative to equities. They look extremely undervalued relative to the historical averages.”

Tim Bodner, real estate deals leader at PwC, joined the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report to discuss what today's uncertain market environment means for investment patterns and transaction activity.

Bodner described transaction activity across a range of real estate sectors, including office, hospitality, senior housing, data centers, and energy infrastructure, as “fairly robust.” He stressed that the real estate sector is used to operating in periods of uncertainty and cyclical change, while noting that REITs are focusing on what they can control and are “in a good place at this stage, given everything that’s going on.”

He also pointed out that there's a lot of activity around figuring out what's the right scale to have to operate in this new environment, “which likely will lead to more public to public and public to private transaction activity in the REIT space.”

Michael Seton, president and CEO of Sila Realty Trust, Inc . (NYSE: SILA), joined the latest episode of Nareit’s REIT Report podcast to reflect upon the one-year anniversary of the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Seton said he is “extremely optimistic” about Sila’s future, noting that the REIT is scaled to grow its portfolio, which currently exceeds $2 billion in assets. He said “very high quality” opportunities exist throughout the marketplace.

“If a seller is trying to bring a product to market today to raise capital or sell a property, it's got to be high quality because capital, generally speaking in the market, is constrained,” he said. While focused nationally, Sila has a particular emphasis on Sun Belt states.

During the interview, Seton discussed Sila’s decision to do a direct listing on the NYSE and why it was confident in that choice, as well as what its Wall Street sponsorship looks like today. He also highlighted the tailwinds supporting the health care sector and described what makes health care so compelling to investors right now.