REITs and the downturn in commercial real estate

Bruce and Jeff speak to Richard Hill, head of real estate strategy and research at Cohen & Steers, about everything REITs. Rich walks us through the current downturn in commercial real estate, as well as the difference between inflation and stagflation. He also discusses why, if REITs are such a good hedge against inflation, they had such a bad year in 2022.Guest Bio: Mr. Richard Hill has more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience across a variety of roles including interest rate derivatives, capital markets and, most recently, research. Mr. Hill is a Senior Vice President at Cohen & Steers where he leads the Real Estate Strategy Group, a team responsible for identifying and analyzing long-term and secular real estate investment ideas, as well as building an integrated listed and private real estate strategy function to help investors optimize portfolios both strategically and tactically. Previously he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he was Head of U.S. Commercial Real Estate Research across public REITs, CRE Debt and macro property research. He’s a ranked analyst in both Equity and Fixed Income by Institutional Investors, one of a select few to be ranked in both polls. Mr Hill is 2022 member of the Commercial Real Estate / Multifamily Finance Board of Governors (COMBOG) of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Previously Mr. Hill was Head of CLO and CMBS Research at Morgan Stanley. From 2010 to 2013, he was a Director of CLO & CMBS Strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland ("RBS") Securities where he was responsible for developing and communicating investment strategies for both internal and external clients. Mr. Hill started his career at Banc of America Securities where he was a debt capital markets banker in the Structured Securities Group and an associate in the Interest Rate Derivatives group, both roles focused on CRE.