http://www.reit.com Many REITs were able to acquire assets in desirable markets in 2011, according to Haendel St. Juste, equity research analyst with KBW.

In a video interview with REIT.com at REITWorld 2011: NAREIT’s Annual Convention For All Things REIT in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole hotel, St. Juste pointed out that the acquisition pace is playing out as expected.

He said that banks were putting more assets on the market as over levered borrowers were “facing the music.”

“The REITs were able to take advantage of their cost and access to capital to really be able to pursue and acquire some well located assets at, more often than not, very reasonable prices,” St. Juste said.

Today, the cap rates are in the high fours and low fives for a high quality asset in one of the core coastal markets, according to St. Juste. He added that there’s a good chance for REITs to create value with those acquisitions, especially with good NOI growth over the next couple of years.

In terms of how 2011 has fared, St. Juste said most REITs took a conservative approach amid the uncertain economic outlook.

“We weren’t seeing much job growth and I think most tended to default to a more conservative baseline projection for their year,” St. Juste said.

However, he added that there were a few surprises in the apartment sector because landlords were able to increase rents, without material job growth.

“Despite what you read in the news, apartment fundamentals are strong and you have a number of confluence factors driving that,” he said.

In addition to a decline in home ownership rates, St. Juste said that the apartment sector is benefiting from a reduction in supply because of the construction freeze during the downturn.

He said that factor, coupled with a modest job growth among the rental age population of 25-34 year olds, places the apartment sector in a good space.

“These companies are professionally managed, have strong balance sheets and there is prospect for dividend growth across many of the sectors, especially in apartments,” St. Juste said.

By Matt Bechard

Duration : 0:3:28

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http://www.biggerpockets.com – In this interview with Joel Owens, a commercial real estate investor and CRE broker, we learn about triple net leases, commercial hard money loans, commercial land development, owner financing, multi-family and retail investments, and much more.

For more on Joel, see: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2011/08/30/interview-with-commercial-real-estate-investor-joel-owens-on-multifamily-retail-investments/

Duration : 0:35:2

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http://www.reit.com In a video interview with REIT.com at REITWorld 2011: NAREIT’s Annual Convention For All Things REIT in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole hotel, CEO Trevor Bond said that W.P. Carey is invested in about 28 industries at any given time. He said any one of the company’s funds may have 20 or so different industry types represented within it.

“So naturally, as you get ups and downs in the economy, those risks will be buffeted by the spreading out of those risks,” Bond said.

W.P. Carey also views diversity as more complex than usual, according to Bond. He said the company likes to diversify by country, or region within a country, to get the full benefits of relative movements in different economies.

However, he said one of the primary benefits comes in the form of having long term leases. Bond said long term leases take the risk out of the short term swing of its investment.

“With any given dislocation, such as the one we’re currently in, if you have a five to seven year down cycle and we’re signing leases that are 15 to 20 years, we feel comfortable that if we’ve done our homework and evaluated that particular tenant and credit appropriately, as long as they can continue to pay rent we can deliver income to our investors,” he said.

Bond said that the best investment opportunity is in the triple B credits or below. He added that they may be very good companies that experienced difficulty accessing the credit markets at a particular time.

“So we can step in and provide them with credit at a time when they might not be able to get it. We’re seeing quite a lot of that; that’s been our sweet spot,” Bond said.

Bond has also noticed more good credits in secondary markets where there hasn’t been a lot of new construction.

“We are seeing some very good credits that either want to build a new campus or take over existing buildings, or use our funding to renovate it and then occupy that building,” he said.

By Matt Bechard

Duration : 0:4:17

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http://www.reit.com Mark Zalatoris, president and chief executive officer of Inland Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: IRC), said the company’s occupancy levels have improved as new tenants have entered key markets in Chicago and Minneapolis.

Speaking with REIT.com during REITWorld 2011: NAREIT’s Annual Convention for All Things REIT in Dallas last month, Zalatoris said those new tenants include Ross Dress for Less, Gordmans and H.H. Gregg.

“We have been very fortunate in that we have been the beneficiary of their market expansions,” Zalatoris said. In addition, he said, “some of our tenants are doing some right-sizing and we have been able to offer them the right type and size of space and drawn them from competing centers.”

Inland has capital available to pursue strategic acquisitions, including funds from Dutch pension fund PGGM. Zalatoris said the two are targeting necessity-based shopping centers in the upper Midwest.

Looking to 2012, Zalatoris said what has him most optimistic is that there is capital available (particularly from inland’s partners including PGGM) and there are quality acquisitions to target.

“We are also working with some of our developers we have done business with in the past on off-market deals,” he said.

Zalatoris said he expects to see the company continue to have a robust pipeline of new acquisitions going into 2012. “The fact that the retailers feel very optimistic about the future and are continuing to express a desire to expand should continue in 2012 as well,” he said.

On the flip side, Zalatoris said macroeconomic issues continue to be a concern throughout the real estate industry and country as a whole.

“There is concern European contagion could possibly spread back to the United States. Consumer sentiment is what could impact our retailers in a negative way. And if it does turn negative there expansion plans may be scaled back and that would trickle down and affect us,” he said.

By Matt Bechard

Duration : 0:3:49

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http://www.reit.com Retail REIT DDR Corp. (NYSE: DDR) has had an active year on the acquisitions front, and that should continue into 2012, according to Daniel Hurwitz, DDR’s president and CEO.

In a video interview with REIT.com at REITWorld 2011: NAREIT’s Annual Convention For All Things REIT in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole hotel, Hurwitz previewed where his company is headed in the coming year. Hurwitz said he is expecting DDR’s acquisition and disposition of assets to hold up in the coming year, although he noted that the company doesn’t have any plans for major consolidation efforts.

“There are many opporunities within our sector where we can get prime assets,” Hurwitz said. He said DDR’s operating platform gives the company an opportunity to add value to such assets.

Hurwitz said DDR plans to continue to sell a specific class of assets in its portfolio. “I think there’s a market out there for our non-prime portfolio,” he said.

Looking ahead, DDR plans to continue its strategy of partnering with premier retailers to fill its properties, according to Hurwitz. Those primarily consist of large publicly traded companies, which Hurwitz said is a benefit to his company.

“The great thing about our business is that you don’t have to guess who that is,” said Hurwitz. “Most of our retailers are large public companies. They report their sales. We know where the market share is going every month, if not every quarter.”

On the financial side of the house, Hurwitz emphasized the need for DDR to be prepared for any troublesome developments in the capital markets.

“Financially, we just have to make sure that we are anticipating what could be coming down the road and being conservative in our view to what our capital structure should look like,” he said.

By Matt Bechard

Duration : 0:3:48

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