Investment returns for US Equity REITs beat private real estate returns in three critical inflation scenarios.

Across low, medium, and high CPI environments between 1970 and 2025, equity REITs outperformed by 220 to 500 basis points.

The analysis also showed REITs outperformed across different interest rate and GDP scenarios.

Source: Nareit

Published: July 2026

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US REITs outperform US private real estate by almost 2% in defined benefit plans over 26 years, and rank near the top of all US asset class returns.

Source: CEM for Nareit

Published: 2026

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Globally, equity REITs outperform private real estate, stocks and bonds over the long-term.

Source: Nareit and partners

Published: 2025

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REITs easily outshine rival asset classes when we look at compound annual growth rates.

Source: Nareit

Published: 2024

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Turning to Europe, REIT and corporate real estate equities returned an annualised 7.4% over 20 years, far higher than European equities and bonds.

Source: EPRA

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The five-year average yield of listed real estate in the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Developed Europe REITs Index is 4.7% (as of June 30, 2021), easily surpassing the competition.

Source: EPRA

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The South African REIT Association (SAREIT) make the case for a significant increase in REIT allocations within multi-asset investor portfolios.

The paper concludes that “…by incorporating REITs into a diversified portfolio, investors can potentially enhance risk-adjusted returns, hedge against inflation and gain exposure to the commercial real estate asset class.”

Source: SAREIT

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