By Steven A. Wechsler, President and CEO, NAREIT

REITs were authorized first by the U.S. Congress in 1960 in an effort to ensure that investors from all walks of life could access large-scale, income-producing real estate investment opportunities. Over the past decades, the REIT approach to real estate investment has taken root and is now evident in more than 20 nations around the world.

Today, NAREIT, the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), and the Asian Public Real Estate Association (APREA), in league with groups like the British Property Federation, the Property Council of Australia, Japan’s Association for Real Estate Securitization (ARES) and Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC), are taking the REIT real estate investment proposition to investors around the world.

Elsewhere in this issue, EPRA’s CEO Philip Charls and ARPEA’s CEO Peter Mitchell, address the developing REIT and publicly traded real estate investment marketplace in Europe and Asia including Australia, respectively.

What we see now throughout the globe is impressive. The securitization of equity-based real estate investment is fast-growing through acceptance of the REIT approach.

Here’s why. The financial benefit of diversification through real estate investment, buttressed by the reliable and growing dividends offered by REITs, is now understood by more and more investors. Equally important, the value of owning “liquid” and “transparent” real estate, now available through REIT-based equity securitization, is more and more recognized. Significantly, the outstanding performance of REIT and publicly traded real estate investments over extended time periods is compelling.

In America, U.S. REITs have invested in all 50 states as well as in many nations abroad. What’s more, the investor base in U.S. REITs is increasingly international as investors around the world look for global real estate investment diversification. That’s in part because recent studies have concluded that globalizing a REIT and publicly traded real estate investment portfolio provides more benefit than globalizing a traditional stock equities portfolio. Past history underlines that much of that benefit has come from U.S. REITs.

Looking ahead, there’s no doubt that grounding a global real estate investment strategy in U.S. REITs willbe a recipe for investment success.