Greg Horstman, head of REIT corporate banking at Capital One, participated in a video interview in conjunction with Nareit’s REITworld: 2021 Annual Conference.
Horstman said capital markets remain open to REITs, “especially those that have strong, flexible balance sheets, differentiated or specialized real estate portfolios, and scale.”
REIT debt markets are deep and liquid, Horstman said, and deleveraging will continue to be top of mind going forward. REITs have been proactively involved in raising capital, he added, with total net inflows into the space on pace for one of its best years ever.
Meanwhile, management teams continue to have a “variety of levers to pull from in maintaining balance sheet integrity, optimizing real estate portfolios, and executing on their strategic endeavors,” including capital recycling, joint venture formation, and capital raising, Horstman said.
“REITs have performed well and, in some cases, have executed at more attractive levels than they did pre-pandemic,” Horstman observed.
In addition, the mergers and acquisition market has been particularly active, Horstman said. He added that there is “a lot of capital out there that needs to be put to work.”