- Reits have lost a lot of value since 2022
- Quality commercial landlords are hard to find
There are two main ways to unearth the UK's best real estate investment trusts (Reits). The first is to focus solely on the market cycle. By any assessment, it's clear that things have been a struggle since the era of ultra-low interest rates ended. As rates have risen, property valuations have slumped and transactions have dried up. The FTSE 350 Real Estate index fell 45 per cent between its peak at the end of 2021 and its trough at the end of October this year. That marked the index’s worst performance since the end of 2006 to March 2009 when it lost 79.6 per cent of its value.
Over the past two months, the index has started to mount a recovery, as confidence grows that the Bank of England has finished hiking rates and will turn its attention to rate cuts next year.