Commercial property likely to avoid the rout in REITs

Although real estate investment trusts (REITs) were clobbered during the recent market turmoil, their performance over short periods is often comparable to that of equites, which were also hammered. With this in mind, we expect REITs to stage a sustained recovery alongside equities once coronavirus has been brought under control in much of the world. We assume this will be around mid-year. This fits with our view that the downturn in the underlying commercial property market won’t be very deep or last long.