What are the key sales KPIs for the REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) industry in 2027?

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Direct Answer

The nine KPIs that actually run a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) business in 2027 are: Same-Store NOI Growth %, Occupancy %, FFO (Funds From Operations) per Share, AFFO (Adjusted FFO) per Share, Dividend Yield + Payout Ratio, NAV (Net Asset Value) per Share, Debt-to-EBITDA, Weighted-Average Lease Term (WALT), and Acquisition Pipeline ($B).

Together they answer the three questions REIT investors and the board care about: is the existing portfolio earning more rent, is the balance sheet defensible at the next rate-cycle turn, and is the external growth engine still buying assets at a spread.

TL;DR
— REITs are not operating companies, they are cash-flow vehicles wrapped in a property portfolio. Same-store NOI growth is the heart rate; FFO/AFFO per share is the breath; debt-to-EBITDA is the spine. If same-store NOI growth runs below 2% while debt-to-EBITDA climbs above 6.5x, the dividend is in danger inside four quarters.
Track the nine KPIs weekly, mark NAV monthly against Green Street, and update the acquisition pipeline every two weeks against your cost of capital — that is the operating cadence Prologis, Equinix, Welltower, and Realty Income all converged on after the 2022–2024 rate shock.

Why REITs Work Differently

REITs are not normal C-corps and they are not normal real estate operators. Four mechanics make them their own category.

The 90% distribution rule rewires the income statement. A US REIT must distribute at least 90% of taxable income to keep its tax-exempt status. That single rule means GAAP net income is almost useless — depreciation makes earnings look weak when cash flow is strong. The industry instead reports FFO (Nareit-defined: net income plus real estate depreciation, minus gains on property sales) and AFFO (FFO minus recurring CapEx and straight-line rent adjustments).

Every comp, every guidance number, every analyst model runs on FFO/AFFO per share — not EPS.

Cost of capital is the product. A REIT's job is to buy assets at a higher cap rate than its weighted cost of debt + equity. When the 10-year Treasury moved from 1.5% to 4.5% in 2022–2024, REIT acquisition volume collapsed by roughly 60% according to MSCI Real Capital Analytics, because the investment spread went negative.

The KPI that captures this is the gap between implied cap rate on the stock (NOI / enterprise value) and going-in cap rate on new deals. If new deals price 50+ bps inside your own stock, you should buy back shares instead.

Same-store vs same-property vs same-pool — definitions matter. Each REIT defines its same-store pool slightly differently (own-for-12-months, own-for-24-months, stabilized only, etc.). Prologis reports cash and GAAP same-store NOI separately. Equinix reports stabilized vs total.

Realty Income reports same-store rent. When you benchmark, you have to normalize — Green Street and S&P Global Market Intelligence publish standardized comps for exactly this reason.

The dividend is the contract. Unlike SaaS or industrials, a REIT's equity story IS the dividend. Cutting it is a confession of failure — Vornado, SL Green, and the office REITs lived through this in 2023–2024. The AFFO payout ratio is the discipline metric: under 80% means you have cushion to raise; 80–95% is the operating band; above 100% means the dividend is being funded by debt or asset sales and the clock is ticking.

The 9 KPIs, In Depth

1. Same-Store NOI Growth %. Year-over-year change in net operating income on properties owned for the comparable period. The cleanest read on operating health. 2026 sector benchmarks per Nareit: industrial ~6–7% (Prologis guided 6.25–7.00% cash same-store), data centers ~5–8% (Equinix), senior housing ~20%+ (Welltower SHOP segment posted 22% in Q1 2026 on a 370 bps occupancy gain), net lease ~1–2% (Realty Income), mall/retail ~3–4% (Simon).

Below 2% in a non-office sector is a yellow flag.

2. Occupancy %. Leased square footage divided by total. Nareit's REIT Industry Tracker shows blended occupancy of ~93% across the public REIT universe in 2026, with retail at 96.9%, apartments at 95.7%, industrial at 94.5%, and office still dragging at 85.3%.

Equinix runs 97.5% in its stabilized data centers; Public Storage typically prints ~92%; AvalonBay and Equity Residential land at ~96% physical occupancy. Track move-ins, move-outs, and renewal rate alongside the headline number — occupancy without retention is just churn.

3. FFO (Funds From Operations) per Share. Nareit-defined cash earnings proxy. Per-share, not absolute — that is how dilution from equity issuance gets caught.

Prologis guided $6.07–$6.23 Core FFO/share for 2026. Welltower raised FY26 normalized FFO guidance to $6.21–$6.35. American Tower and Digital Realty publish AFFO/share as the primary metric.

FFO growth of 5–8% per share is healthy; above 10% is excellent and usually means specialty exposure (data centers, towers, senior housing).

4. AFFO (Adjusted FFO) per Share. FFO minus recurring maintenance CapEx (roughly 1–3% of rent in industrial/retail, 8–12% in office, 5–7% in apartments) and minus straight-line rent. AFFO is the actual cash available for dividends.

The AFFO-to-FFO ratio is itself a tell — industrial REITs run ~90%, office REITs ~70–75%. A widening gap quarter-over-quarter means CapEx is creeping.

5. Dividend Yield + Payout Ratio. Yield is the market's pricing of risk; payout ratio is management's discipline. Sector medians in 2026: industrial 2.5–3.5%, data center 2–3%, net lease 5–6%, healthcare 3–4%, storage 3.5–4.5%, mall 4–6%.

AFFO payout ratio target band is 75–90%. Realty Income's monthly dividend pays out ~75% of AFFO — that is why they have raised it 100+ times. Prologis lifted its quarterly dividend to $1.07 in 2026.

6. NAV (Net Asset Value) per Share. Estimated private-market value of the portfolio, minus debt, divided by shares. Green Street publishes consensus NAVs the industry treats as gospel.

The premium-or-discount-to-NAV is the equity-issuance signal: at a premium, issue shares and buy buildings; at a discount, sell buildings and buy back shares. Most REITs traded at 10–25% discounts to NAV through 2023–2024; the discount narrowed to 5–15% in 2026 as cap rates restabilized.

7. Debt-to-EBITDA. Total debt divided by trailing-twelve-month EBITDA. The single best leverage metric for REITs.

Investment-grade target is 5.0–6.0x; above 7.0x and the rating agencies start watching. Prologis runs ~4.8x in 2026 — one of the cleanest balance sheets in REIT-land. Nareit's industry-wide median has held near 5.2x.

Pair it with fixed-charge coverage (EBITDA / interest + preferred) — healthy is above 3.5x.

8. Weighted-Average Lease Term (WALT). Average remaining lease length, weighted by rent. The visibility metric.

Net lease REITs print the longest WALTs — Realty Income runs ~9 years, W.P. Carey ~12 years. Industrial WALT is ~5–7 years (Prologis ~5 years), data centers ~5 years (Equinix), senior housing has no meaningful WALT because the units are short-term.

A shortening WALT in a stable sector is a quiet alarm — it means renewals are slipping or new leases are shorter-term.

9. Acquisition Pipeline ($B). Identified and underwritten deals that could close in the next 12 months, by stage (LOI, hard contract, closed). The external growth engine.

In 2024 most REITs ran near zero — capital was too expensive. By 2026, Prologis was back deploying $3–5B/year, Welltower closed ~$7B of senior-housing acquisitions, and Realty Income guided to $4–5B of investment volume. Pipeline divided by enterprise value is the growth-rate input — a 3–5% ratio is healthy external growth.

flowchart TD A[Capital Raise: Debt or Equity] --> B{Cost of Capital} B -->|Below Cap Rate| C[Accretive Acquisition] B -->|Above Cap Rate| D[Buy Back Shares Instead] C --> E[Add to Same-Store Pool After 12mo] E --> F[Same-Store NOI Growth] F --> G[FFO per Share Growth] G --> H{AFFO Payout Ratio} H -->|Below 90%| I[Dividend Raise] H -->|Above 95%| J[Dividend at Risk] I --> K[Stock Premium to NAV] J --> L[Stock Discount to NAV] K --> A L --> D D --> M[Higher FFO per Share via Buyback] M --> G

Real Operators

Prologis (PLD) is the industrial gold standard — 1.2B sq ft globally, 4.8x debt-to-EBITDA, 95%+ occupancy, $6.07–$6.23 FFO/share 2026 guide. Equinix (EQIX) runs 260+ data centers across 70+ metros with 97.5% stabilized occupancy and ~10% AFFO growth. Welltower (WELL) owns the senior housing leadership position with 22% same-store NOI growth in Q1 2026 and a 370 bps occupancy lift.

Realty Income (O) is the net-lease cathedral — 15,400+ properties, 99% occupancy, monthly dividend, ~9-year WALT, A-rated balance sheet. Simon Property Group (SPG) runs the premium-mall portfolio with 95%+ leased occupancy and rebuilt FFO/share above pre-pandemic levels. Public Storage (PSA) dominates self-storage with ~92% occupancy and a debt-free-by-most-standards balance sheet.

AvalonBay (AVB) and Equity Residential (EQR) are the coastal multifamily duo, both running 96% physical occupancy and 2–3% same-store revenue growth. Digital Realty (DLR) is Equinix's hyperscale-tilted competitor. American Tower (AMT) is the global cell-tower platform — 220K+ sites, multi-decade leases with the carriers, and AFFO/share growth in the high single digits.

Failure Modes

The four that kill REITs. (1) Refinancing the cap stack at the wrong time — booking a 10-year unsecured at 6.5% to cover a 3.5% maturity wipes out two years of same-store NOI growth; the office REITs lived this in 2023–2024. (2) Acquiring through a closed equity window — issuing shares at a 20% discount to NAV to fund deals at a 50 bps spread is value destruction even when the deal pencils on paper.

(3) Hidden CapEx creep — when AFFO/FFO ratio drops 300+ bps over a year, recurring CapEx is rising faster than rent, and the dividend cushion is eroding before anyone says the word. (4) Concentrated tenant or geographic exposure — a single top-ten tenant going bankrupt (Bed Bath, Rite Aid, WeWork) can erase a quarter of FFO if the exposure is over 5%.

Reporting Cadence

Daily: leasing activity (new leases signed, square footage, rate vs prior), capital markets monitor (10Y Treasury, BBB spread, own stock vs NAV). Weekly: occupancy roll-forward, acquisition pipeline by stage, watchlist tenants, debt maturity calendar 24 months out. Monthly: same-store NOI roll-forward by property, AFFO bridge, NAV mark vs Green Street, payout ratio.

Quarterly: full FFO/AFFO walk for the supplemental, leverage and coverage ratios, full pipeline disclosure, guidance update, dividend declaration.

flowchart TD A[Daily Leasing + Capital Markets] --> B[Weekly Occupancy + Pipeline + Maturities] B --> C[Monthly Same-Store NOI + AFFO Bridge + NAV Mark] C --> D[Quarterly FFO Walk + Leverage + Pipeline + Dividend] D --> E[Earnings Call + Supplemental + Guidance Update] E --> F{Stock vs NAV?} F -->|Premium| G[Issue Equity, Buy Assets] F -->|Discount| H[Sell Assets, Buy Back Shares] G --> A H --> A

30/60/90 Day Plan

Days 1–30: stand up the supplemental-package single source of truth. Reconcile FFO and AFFO definitions to Nareit standard, lock the same-store pool definition, and build the leverage walk from the indenture covenants up. Identify every property whose occupancy or rent rolled in the last 90 days and tag the cause (move-out, expiration, downsizing, expansion).

Days 31–60: ship the NAV-vs-stock dashboard wired to Green Street's monthly cap-rate update and your own asset-level marks. Build the acquisition pipeline tracker with deals tagged LOI / hard contract / closed and a live going-in cap rate vs your weighted cost of capital. Pressure-test the dividend at a 5% same-store NOI decline and a 50 bps cap-rate widening.

Days 61–90: present the new operating model to the CFO and Investment Committee. Re-baseline guidance for FFO/share, AFFO/share, and same-store NOI growth using the cleaned data. Establish a quarterly capital-allocation review where the answer can be "issue equity and acquire," "do nothing," or "buy back shares" — and the going-in-cap-rate-vs-cost-of-capital number is the decision input.

FAQ

FFO vs AFFO — which one do I anchor on? Use FFO/share for headline comps and Wall Street guidance, AFFO/share for dividend coverage and intrinsic-value math. FFO is the industry comparable; AFFO is the cash truth. The widening gap between the two over time is itself a KPI.

How do I think about debt-to-EBITDA for REITs vs corporates? REITs run higher leverage than industrials because the assets are hard collateral. Investment-grade is 5.0–6.0x for most property types; 6.0–7.0x is the watch band; above 7.0x invites a downgrade. Pair it with fixed-charge coverage above 3.5x and an unencumbered-asset ratio above 60% for the full balance-sheet picture.

Why does NAV matter if the stock trades on FFO multiples? NAV is the capital-allocation compass. Trading at a premium to NAV says: issue equity and buy buildings. Trading at a discount says: sell buildings and buy back stock.

Public REITs that ignored their NAV signal between 2022 and 2024 destroyed value; the disciplined ones (Prologis, Realty Income) created it.

Where does ESG / sustainability fit in REIT KPIs? GRESB scores, Scope 1+2 emissions per square foot, LEED/BREEAM portfolio coverage, and green-bond capacity. The European and large institutional capital pools price these explicitly into their cost of capital — a top-quartile GRESB score is worth roughly 10–25 bps of debt spread according to multiple bank desk estimates, which compounds across a $5B+ debt stack.

Sources

Nareit — REIT Industry Tracker (formerly T-Tracker), Quarterly Operating Performance Series
Nareit — REIT Industry Financial Snapshot, 2026
Green Street — US REIT NAV Estimates and Sector Reports
MSCI Real Capital Analytics — US Capital Trends, 2026
S&P Global Market Intelligence — REIT Industry Reports
Prologis, Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 Supplemental
Equinix, Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 AFFO Disclosure
Welltower Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 Earnings Release
Realty Income Corporation — Form 10-K (FY 2025)
Simon Property Group, Public Storage, AvalonBay, Equity Residential, Digital Realty, American Tower — Form 10-K filings (FY 2025)

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### Direct Answer

The nine KPIs that actually run a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) business in 2027 are: **Same-Store NOI Growth %**, **Occupancy %**, **FFO (Funds From Operations) per Share**, **AFFO (Adjusted FFO) per Share**, **Dividend Yield + Payout Ratio**, **NAV (Net Asset Value) per Share**, **Debt-to-EBITDA**, **Weighted-Average Lease Term (WALT)**, and **Acquisition Pipeline ($B)**. Together they answer the three questions REIT investors and the board care about: is the existing portfolio earning more rent, is the balance sheet defensible at the next rate-cycle turn, and is the external growth engine still buying assets at a spread.

> **TL;DR** — REITs are not operating companies, they are cash-flow vehicles wrapped in a property portfolio. Same-store NOI growth is the heart rate; FFO/AFFO per share is the breath; debt-to-EBITDA is the spine. If same-store NOI growth runs below 2% while debt-to-EBITDA climbs above 6.5x, the dividend is in danger inside four quarters. Track the nine KPIs weekly, mark NAV monthly against Green Street, and update the acquisition pipeline every two weeks against your cost of capital — that is the operating cadence Prologis, Equinix, Welltower, and Realty Income all converged on after the 2022–2024 rate shock.

## Why REITs Work Differently

REITs are not normal C-corps and they are not normal real estate operators. Four mechanics make them their own category.

**The 90% distribution rule rewires the income statement.** A US REIT must distribute at least 90% of taxable income to keep its tax-exempt status. That single rule means GAAP net income is almost useless — depreciation makes earnings look weak when cash flow is strong. The industry instead reports **FFO** (Nareit-defined: net income plus real estate depreciation, minus gains on property sales) and **AFFO** (FFO minus recurring CapEx and straight-line rent adjustments). Every comp, every guidance number, every analyst model runs on FFO/AFFO per share — not EPS.

**Cost of capital is the product.** A REIT's job is to buy assets at a higher cap rate than its weighted cost of debt + equity. When the 10-year Treasury moved from 1.5% to 4.5% in 2022–2024, REIT acquisition volume collapsed by roughly 60% according to MSCI Real Capital Analytics, because the **investment spread** went negative. The KPI that captures this is the gap between **implied cap rate on the stock** (NOI / enterprise value) and **going-in cap rate on new deals**. If new deals price 50+ bps inside your own stock, you should buy back shares instead.

**Same-store vs same-property vs same-pool — definitions matter.** Each REIT defines its same-store pool slightly differently (own-for-12-months, own-for-24-months, stabilized only, etc.). Prologis reports cash and GAAP same-store NOI separately. Equinix reports stabilized vs total. Realty Income reports same-store rent. When you benchmark, you have to normalize — Green Street and S&P Global Market Intelligence publish standardized comps for exactly this reason.

**The dividend is the contract.** Unlike SaaS or industrials, a REIT's equity story IS the dividend. Cutting it is a confession of failure — Vornado, SL Green, and the office REITs lived through this in 2023–2024. The **AFFO payout ratio** is the discipline metric: under 80% means you have cushion to raise; 80–95% is the operating band; above 100% means the dividend is being funded by debt or asset sales and the clock is ticking.

## The 9 KPIs, In Depth

**1. Same-Store NOI Growth %.** Year-over-year change in net operating income on properties owned for the comparable period. The cleanest read on operating health. 2026 sector benchmarks per Nareit: industrial **~6–7%** (Prologis guided 6.25–7.00% cash same-store), data centers **~5–8%** (Equinix), senior housing **~20%+** (Welltower SHOP segment posted 22% in Q1 2026 on a 370 bps occupancy gain), net lease **~1–2%** (Realty Income), mall/retail **~3–4%** (Simon). Below 2% in a non-office sector is a yellow flag.

**2. Occupancy %.** Leased square footage divided by total. Nareit's REIT Industry Tracker shows blended occupancy of **~93%** across the public REIT universe in 2026, with retail at **96.9%**, apartments at **95.7%**, industrial at **94.5%**, and office still dragging at **85.3%**. Equinix runs **97.5%** in its stabilized data centers; Public Storage typically prints **~92%**; AvalonBay and Equity Residential land at **~96%** physical occupancy. Track move-ins, move-outs, and renewal rate alongside the headline number — occupancy without retention is just churn.

**3. FFO (Funds From Operations) per Share.** Nareit-defined cash earnings proxy. Per-share, not absolute — that is how dilution from equity issuance gets caught. Prologis guided **$6.07–$6.23** Core FFO/share for 2026. Welltower raised FY26 normalized FFO guidance to **$6.21–$6.35**. American Tower and Digital Realty publish AFFO/share as the primary metric. FFO growth of **5–8% per share** is healthy; above 10% is excellent and usually means specialty exposure (data centers, towers, senior housing).

**4. AFFO (Adjusted FFO) per Share.** FFO minus recurring maintenance CapEx (roughly 1–3% of rent in industrial/retail, 8–12% in office, 5–7% in apartments) and minus straight-line rent. AFFO is the actual cash available for dividends. The AFFO-to-FFO ratio is itself a tell — industrial REITs run **~90%**, office REITs **~70–75%**. A widening gap quarter-over-quarter means CapEx is creeping.

**5. Dividend Yield + Payout Ratio.** Yield is the market's pricing of risk; payout ratio is management's discipline. Sector medians in 2026: industrial **2.5–3.5%**, data center **2–3%**, net lease **5–6%**, healthcare **3–4%**, storage **3.5–4.5%**, mall **4–6%**. AFFO payout ratio target band is **75–90%**. Realty Income's monthly dividend pays out ~75% of AFFO — that is why they have raised it 100+ times. Prologis lifted its quarterly dividend to **$1.07** in 2026.

**6. NAV (Net Asset Value) per Share.** Estimated private-market value of the portfolio, minus debt, divided by shares. Green Street publishes consensus NAVs the industry treats as gospel. The premium-or-discount-to-NAV is the equity-issuance signal: at a premium, issue shares and buy buildings; at a discount, sell buildings and buy back shares. Most REITs traded at **10–25% discounts to NAV** through 2023–2024; the discount narrowed to **5–15%** in 2026 as cap rates restabilized.

**7. Debt-to-EBITDA.** Total debt divided by trailing-twelve-month EBITDA. The single best leverage metric for REITs. Investment-grade target is **5.0–6.0x**; above 7.0x and the rating agencies start watching. Prologis runs **~4.8x** in 2026 — one of the cleanest balance sheets in REIT-land. Nareit's industry-wide median has held near **5.2x**. Pair it with **fixed-charge coverage** (EBITDA / interest + preferred) — healthy is above 3.5x.

**8. Weighted-Average Lease Term (WALT).** Average remaining lease length, weighted by rent. The visibility metric. Net lease REITs print the longest WALTs — Realty Income runs **~9 years**, W.P. Carey **~12 years**. Industrial WALT is **~5–7 years** (Prologis ~5 years), data centers **~5 years** (Equinix), senior housing has no meaningful WALT because the units are short-term. A shortening WALT in a stable sector is a quiet alarm — it means renewals are slipping or new leases are shorter-term.

**9. Acquisition Pipeline ($B).** Identified and underwritten deals that could close in the next 12 months, by stage (LOI, hard contract, closed). The external growth engine. In 2024 most REITs ran near zero — capital was too expensive. By 2026, Prologis was back deploying **$3–5B/year**, Welltower closed **~$7B** of senior-housing acquisitions, and Realty Income guided to **$4–5B** of investment volume. Pipeline divided by enterprise value is the growth-rate input — a **3–5%** ratio is healthy external growth.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    A[Capital Raise: Debt or Equity] --> B{Cost of Capital}
    B -->|Below Cap Rate| C[Accretive Acquisition]
    B -->|Above Cap Rate| D[Buy Back Shares Instead]
    C --> E[Add to Same-Store Pool After 12mo]
    E --> F[Same-Store NOI Growth]
    F --> G[FFO per Share Growth]
    G --> H{AFFO Payout Ratio}
    H -->|Below 90%| I[Dividend Raise]
    H -->|Above 95%| J[Dividend at Risk]
    I --> K[Stock Premium to NAV]
    J --> L[Stock Discount to NAV]
    K --> A
    L --> D
    D --> M[Higher FFO per Share via Buyback]
    M --> G
```

## Real Operators

**Prologis (PLD)** is the industrial gold standard — 1.2B sq ft globally, 4.8x debt-to-EBITDA, 95%+ occupancy, $6.07–$6.23 FFO/share 2026 guide. **Equinix (EQIX)** runs 260+ data centers across 70+ metros with 97.5% stabilized occupancy and ~10% AFFO growth. **Welltower (WELL)** owns the senior housing leadership position with 22% same-store NOI growth in Q1 2026 and a 370 bps occupancy lift. **Realty Income (O)** is the net-lease cathedral — 15,400+ properties, 99% occupancy, monthly dividend, ~9-year WALT, A-rated balance sheet. **Simon Property Group (SPG)** runs the premium-mall portfolio with 95%+ leased occupancy and rebuilt FFO/share above pre-pandemic levels. **Public Storage (PSA)** dominates self-storage with ~92% occupancy and a debt-free-by-most-standards balance sheet. **AvalonBay (AVB)** and **Equity Residential (EQR)** are the coastal multifamily duo, both running 96% physical occupancy and 2–3% same-store revenue growth. **Digital Realty (DLR)** is Equinix's hyperscale-tilted competitor. **American Tower (AMT)** is the global cell-tower platform — 220K+ sites, multi-decade leases with the carriers, and AFFO/share growth in the high single digits.

## Failure Modes

The four that kill REITs. **(1) Refinancing the cap stack at the wrong time** — booking a 10-year unsecured at 6.5% to cover a 3.5% maturity wipes out two years of same-store NOI growth; the office REITs lived this in 2023–2024. **(2) Acquiring through a closed equity window** — issuing shares at a 20% discount to NAV to fund deals at a 50 bps spread is value destruction even when the deal pencils on paper. **(3) Hidden CapEx creep** — when AFFO/FFO ratio drops 300+ bps over a year, recurring CapEx is rising faster than rent, and the dividend cushion is eroding before anyone says the word. **(4) Concentrated tenant or geographic exposure** — a single top-ten tenant going bankrupt (Bed Bath, Rite Aid, WeWork) can erase a quarter of FFO if the exposure is over 5%.

## Reporting Cadence

**Daily:** leasing activity (new leases signed, square footage, rate vs prior), capital markets monitor (10Y Treasury, BBB spread, own stock vs NAV). **Weekly:** occupancy roll-forward, acquisition pipeline by stage, watchlist tenants, debt maturity calendar 24 months out. **Monthly:** same-store NOI roll-forward by property, AFFO bridge, NAV mark vs Green Street, payout ratio. **Quarterly:** full FFO/AFFO walk for the supplemental, leverage and coverage ratios, full pipeline disclosure, guidance update, dividend declaration.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    A[Daily Leasing + Capital Markets] --> B[Weekly Occupancy + Pipeline + Maturities]
    B --> C[Monthly Same-Store NOI + AFFO Bridge + NAV Mark]
    C --> D[Quarterly FFO Walk + Leverage + Pipeline + Dividend]
    D --> E[Earnings Call + Supplemental + Guidance Update]
    E --> F{Stock vs NAV?}
    F -->|Premium| G[Issue Equity, Buy Assets]
    F -->|Discount| H[Sell Assets, Buy Back Shares]
    G --> A
    H --> A
```

## 30/60/90 Day Plan

**Days 1–30:** stand up the supplemental-package single source of truth. Reconcile FFO and AFFO definitions to Nareit standard, lock the same-store pool definition, and build the leverage walk from the indenture covenants up. Identify every property whose occupancy or rent rolled in the last 90 days and tag the cause (move-out, expiration, downsizing, expansion).

**Days 31–60:** ship the NAV-vs-stock dashboard wired to Green Street's monthly cap-rate update and your own asset-level marks. Build the acquisition pipeline tracker with deals tagged LOI / hard contract / closed and a live going-in cap rate vs your weighted cost of capital. Pressure-test the dividend at a 5% same-store NOI decline and a 50 bps cap-rate widening.

**Days 61–90:** present the new operating model to the CFO and Investment Committee. Re-baseline guidance for FFO/share, AFFO/share, and same-store NOI growth using the cleaned data. Establish a quarterly capital-allocation review where the answer can be "issue equity and acquire," "do nothing," or "buy back shares" — and the going-in-cap-rate-vs-cost-of-capital number is the decision input.

## FAQ

**FFO vs AFFO — which one do I anchor on?** Use FFO/share for headline comps and Wall Street guidance, AFFO/share for dividend coverage and intrinsic-value math. FFO is the industry comparable; AFFO is the cash truth. The widening gap between the two over time is itself a KPI.

**How do I think about debt-to-EBITDA for REITs vs corporates?** REITs run higher leverage than industrials because the assets are hard collateral. Investment-grade is **5.0–6.0x** for most property types; **6.0–7.0x** is the watch band; above **7.0x** invites a downgrade. Pair it with **fixed-charge coverage above 3.5x** and an **unencumbered-asset ratio above 60%** for the full balance-sheet picture.

**Why does NAV matter if the stock trades on FFO multiples?** NAV is the capital-allocation compass. Trading at a premium to NAV says: issue equity and buy buildings. Trading at a discount says: sell buildings and buy back stock. Public REITs that ignored their NAV signal between 2022 and 2024 destroyed value; the disciplined ones (Prologis, Realty Income) created it.

**Where does ESG / sustainability fit in REIT KPIs?** GRESB scores, Scope 1+2 emissions per square foot, LEED/BREEAM portfolio coverage, and green-bond capacity. The European and large institutional capital pools price these explicitly into their cost of capital — a top-quartile GRESB score is worth roughly 10–25 bps of debt spread according to multiple bank desk estimates, which compounds across a $5B+ debt stack.

## Sources

- Nareit — REIT Industry Tracker (formerly T-Tracker), Quarterly Operating Performance Series
- Nareit — REIT Industry Financial Snapshot, 2026
- Green Street — US REIT NAV Estimates and Sector Reports
- MSCI Real Capital Analytics — US Capital Trends, 2026
- S&P Global Market Intelligence — REIT Industry Reports
- Prologis, Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 Supplemental
- Equinix, Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 AFFO Disclosure
- Welltower Inc. — Form 10-K (FY 2025) and Q1 2026 Earnings Release
- Realty Income Corporation — Form 10-K (FY 2025)
- Simon Property Group, Public Storage, AvalonBay, Equity Residential, Digital Realty, American Tower — Form 10-K filings (FY 2025)

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