Real Estate Investment Trusts

(2 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The objective of this course is to introduce students to Real Estate Investment Trusts and their role in the real estate capital markets as well as their use and role in investor's portfolios. We will examine the requirements and restrictions to qualify as a REIT as well as the associated tax benefits. REITs own and manage over $3 trillion dollars of real estate and are becoming an increasingly important form of real estate ownership. REITs are where Wall Street intersects with Main Street real estate. We will compare the benefits of the REIT structure versus the private real estate fund structure for both investors and real estate managers including corporate governance and alignment of interest with investors. The course will also examine whether REITs behave like real estate or stocks. A good portion of the class will be dedicated to REIT valuation with an emphasis on Net Asset Value, Warranted Value, and Funds from Operations valuation techniques. This will lead to portfolio construction topics, REIT benchmarks and the ability to access non-core real estate property types in the public REIT market such as Data Centers and Cell Towers.