Location is the most important thing when it comes to real estate. Yet, when investing in REITs, few investors take the time to properly evaluate the properties that make up a REIT’s portfolio. Fortunately, Pelion’s REIT Property Map feature is here to speed up research and investment due diligence.
Here is how it works.
Visualizing a Single REIT Portfolio
Say you are interested in investing in the red hot industrial sector and would like to see where Prologis, one of the top players in the space is invested. Simply head to the Company Overview tab on the platform and choose Prologis in the dropdown menu and boom – you’re done.
As shown above, you not only get a satellite map of where Prologis’ properties are located but also a street-level view, giving you immediate insights into what the properties look like on the ground. Hovering over the individual markers will also bring up the address, type, and size of the property.
Scrolling down, you will find a detailed breakdown of the portfolio’s sector and geography, giving you a better sense of the portfolio’s composition. In this example, we see Prologis’ portfolio is made up primarily of industrial, warehouses, and flex buildings. Texas is the REIT’s #1 market with Houston being its main city.
Scrolling further down, you will find the demographic profile of the portfolio, giving you another dimension of insight into the portfolio quality. More on this below.
Comparing Two or More REITs
Let’s say you are interested in adding some exposure to the retail sector with a shopping mall REIT. Simon Property Group and Tanger Factory Outlets are two names you are contemplating and would like to get a better sense of what their portfolios consist of. This is where the Peer Comparison feature comes in.
Simply select the two REITs in the Search Bar and you will get a detailed look at the map of the two portfolios, as well as a breakdown of the sector, geography, and demographic profile of both companies presented side-by-side for expedient analysis.
Here, for instance, we see that Tanger’s presence is smaller, is more focused on the U.S. east coast, and is consisted only of Outlet Centers, whereas Simon is more geographically diversified and is fairly balanced in its exposure between Regional Malls and Outlet Centers.
Another key feature of Pelion’s Peer Comparison tool is the ability to compare the REITs from a demographic perspective. In this case, we see that compared to Tanger, Simon has more of its properties located in high-income areas as evidenced by the distributions of median household income and home value, as shown below.
Gathering Market Intelligence
This feature is more frequently used by corporates and acquisition teams looking to find joint venture partners, buyers, or sellers of assets. The Market Analysis tab enables you to look up the property by sector (ex: industrial, retail, etc.) or by type (ex: cold storage, shopping center).
For instance, the map above depicts all Industrial institutional property owners in our database. This is particularly useful for acquisition teams looking to gain competitive intelligence on where other investors are making acquisitions and also to gauge the supply-demand dynamics of a market.
Furthermore, it is also useful in performing preliminary due diligence on a buyer/seller/JV partner. A potential buyer can instantly bring up the property map of a potential seller discreetly without having to make contact. Brokers and bankers can also use this feature to market deals, develop relationships, and evaluate lending decisions.
As seen above, Pelion’s REIT Property Map is a handy tool for evaluating investment decisions for REIT investors, developers, brokers, and lenders. To see how Pelion can level up your real estate strategy, book a demo of our platform today!
