REITs market worldwide - statistics & facts

Real estate is a popular form of investment - in addition to potential capital gains when property prices appreciate, real estate can provide a steady cash flow through rental income. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are an investment vehicle that addresses some of the downsides of the direct ownership of a property: illiquidity and upfront costs. By buying shares in a particular REIT, individuals can invest in income-generating real estate without owning the physical property. To qualify for a REIT, companies need to distribute 90 percent of their taxable income to shareholders. This model originated in the United States - the largest REIT market worldwide. European countries with an established market include the UK, Belgium, and France. In the Asia-Pacific region, the biggest markets are Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. In Japan, public REITs held 11.5 trillion Japanese yen in 2022.

What types of REITs are there?

Most REITs are publicly traded, but there are also private ones. Equity REITs are one of the most common types: Depending on the property type in which they specialize, they classify as office REITs, retail REITs, apartment REITs, self-storage REITs, or others. In the U.S., infrastructure REITs had the largest market cap, with an aggregate value of all outstanding shares totaling about 193.8 billion U.S. dollars. In fact, the second- and fourth-largest REITs worldwide, American Tower Corp and Crown Castle Inc, operate in the industrial sector. The REIT with the largest market cap in the UK as of March 2023 was Segro PLC, a company that specializes in industrial and logistics real estate. The self-storage company Safestore Holdings PLC, on the other hand, had the highest five-year return on investment. In Japan, the office REIT Nippon Building Fund Inc topped the ranking by market cap as of November 2022, with over one trillion Japanese yen.

How has the REIT market developed in recent years?

In 2022, the worsening of the economic situation had a major impact on the stock market, also affecting the REITs market. The FTSE EPRA/Nareit Global Real Estate Index - an index tracking the performance of listed real estate companies - registered negative annual return rates across all regions globally as of March 2023. The U.S. REITs market shrunk from a record 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars to less than 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars. In some segments in the U.S., companies traded at a discount to the net asset value. Offices, hotels, and timber had the most discount. The U.S. also saw the price-to-equity (PE) ratio significantly fall in 2022, after hitting 50 percent in 2021. The PE ratio is a valuation metric and is calculated as the ratio of the total market cap to the total earnings. A higher PE ratio means that the market cap has grown higher than the earnings - a sign of high investor confidence but also that the market may be overpriced.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Mar 22, 2023

Key insights

Market cap of the largest REIT worldwide
117.2bn USD
Value of listed real estate market in North America
1.3tn USD
Dividend yield of FTSE EPRA/Nareit Global Real Estate Index
4.4%
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Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Leading real estate investment trusts (REITs) trading on London Stock Exchange (UK) as of 31 December 2022, by market capitalization (in billion British pounds)

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London Stock Exchange (UK): largest REITs by market cap 2022

Leading real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Canada in 2022, by market capitalization (in billion Canadian dollars)

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Market cap of leading REITs in Canada 2022

Leading real estate investment trusts (REITs) worldwide as of March 2023, by market capitalization (in billion U.S. dollars)

Real Estate Companies

Leading REITs globally 2023 by market cap

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