U.S. REITs Outperform Asia and Europe Over Decade

Research conducted by Derek Horstmeyer of George Mason University reveals that U.S.-focused real-estate investment trusts (REITs) were the top-performing regional investments over the last 10 years. These assets averaged an annual return of 7.08%, significantly outpacing Asia-focused REITs at 2.33% and Europe-focused REITs, which performed the worst with a 1.23% average annual return.

Within the U.S. market, data center-focused REITs emerged as the strongest specialization, delivering an average annualized return of 13.75%. Other U.S. sectors followed with commercial real estate at 10.18% and infrastructure at 9.51%, while residential REITs trailed the group with a 7.05% average return.

The analysis utilized data from Morningstar Direct to determine these figures. While the current artificial intelligence boom has supported the growth of data center returns, the research notes that these specific assets were already outperforming other sectors before 2023.