NAREIT indexes have served as investment performance benchmarks for the REIT industry since their inception in January 1972. They were designed to provide the most comprehensive assessment of overall industry performance and include all tax-qualified REITs with common shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ National Market List. By working with FTSE, the indexes will benefit from FTSE’s operational support and technical capability and be brought in line with FTSE’s award winning and internationally recognized index design methodology.
Commercial real estate investment has long been recognized by institutional investors as a core asset in mixed asset portfolios. Over the 30-year period ended December 2005, the FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index outperformed most major US and international equity and bond indexes with an impressive 13.8% compound annual total rate of return.
Steven A. Wechsler, President and CEO of NAREIT, and Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive, FTSE Group, said in a joint statement, “NAREIT and FTSE are both leaders in their respective fields – NAREIT is committed to providing the best possible services to REITs and publicly traded real estate companies with an interest in the U.S. real estate and investment marketplace, while FTSE is widely recognized as a leading global index provider. Working together, we are creating an index suite that meets the needs of both domestic and international investors, ensuring awareness and visibility of the US REIT industry across global markets.”
The FTSE NAREIT US Real Estate Index Series will be available March 6, 2006.
