NAREIM Member Survey - September rent collections

Oct 19, 2020

Rent collections hit 96.5% in September – the highest level since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest NAREIM member survey and the last one in its series.

Industrial continued to be the best performing property type with 98% of rents collected in September – followed closely by multifamily and office.

Retail however has continued to see the most significant month-over-month growth, with September collections almost topping 90% compared to just 52% in April and 44% in May.

All property types have seen steady growth in initial collections, marking a stabilization of cashflows – and easing fears at the start of the pandemic about impacts to collections.

The improving landscape for rent collections was also mirrored in expectations for October cashflows – with all NAREIM members anticipating collections next month to remain the same as or be up to 5% better than September.

The upbeat message from the survey was also mirrored in real-time conversations with tenants, with one member saying: “Post Labor-Day, CEOs, owners and business managers were pushing to get more people back into the office. Parking lots are clearly fuller than in prior months.”

To read the full survey results, click here.

Please note, this will be the last rent collection survey collected by NAREIM. Please contact Zoe Hughes for more information, zhughes@nareim.org.

Highlights of the survey include:

• Initial rent collections were at their highest levels across all property types in September compared to prior initial reports – with collections for industrial, multifamily and office at 98%, 96.3% and 96% respectively.

• Retail has shown the best month-over-month performance, with 89.9% of rents collected in September.

• Two-thirds of NAREIM members expect October rent collections to remain the same as September, while one-third expect them to be up to 5% better.

• All real estate investment managers are now using rent deferrals to manage rent relief requests.

The NAREIM survey was conducted between October 5 and October 16, and comprised 6 organizations with an average AUM of $5.1bn. This is the last survey to monitor rent collections among NAREIM members. For more information on member surveys, please contact Zoe Hughes.

To read the full survey results, click here.

To read the submitted data, click here.