This Trend Shows Shopping Center REITs Are Getting Stronger
Normally, investors in real estate investment trusts (REITs) pay particular attention to occupancy, which shows how full a landlord's properties are. During the early days of the pandemic, the focus switched to rent collection, since an occupied space that doesn't generate rent isn't particularly profitable. Now that rent collection rates have strongly recovered, occupancy is again the key metric being watched. This is an important number, but there's a third metric you don't want to overlook.
Occupancy is a logical number to monitor for a REIT. These companies are landlords, so their basic business is to buy properties and marry them up with lessees who wish to occupy them. A property that's half empty isn't a good thing, though it's important to remember that finding the right tenants is often vital. It can take time to curate a property so that it meets the needs of the area it serves while also generating an attractive return. That's particularly true in the shopping center space, where properties are deeply intertwined with the area around them.
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Source Fool.com
