Who Paid The Rent? Earnings Halftime Report

Updated: Sep 10, 2020

Did the rent get paid? We just passed the halfway point of another newsworthy REIT earnings season. Results thus far have generally been better than expected with nearly a dozen REITs boosting guidance.
After 59 equity REITs and 30 mortgage REITs announced a dividend cut in March through June, just one additional REIT has announced a reduction since the start of July.
Rent collection has remained largely a non-factor for the "essential" property sectors with collection rates averaging over 95% while retail REITs have noted a steady and sequential improvement since April.
While there haven't been any significant "fireworks" thus far, the back-half of REIT earnings season is where we'll see results from most of the troubled property sectors and more highly-levered REITs.
Real estate is anything but monolithic. Amid the pandemic, several property sectors, including technology and industrial REITs, have only become stronger while the residential sector continues to lead the post-pandemic recovery.