With the coronavirus pandemic shuttering shops and causing millions of people to lose jobs, the crisis has also limited property owners’ ability to collect rents.
Nationally just 10% to 20% of mall retailers paid rent in April and many not until the end of the month, according to an estimate from CBRE. The paying share was higher for other assets like multi-family apartments (89% though not all in full) and offices, but the real estate services firm expects rent prices to decline for even the strongest sectors and for recovery to take at least 12 months for warehouses and at least 36 months for shops, restaurants and hotels.
The pain is universal. But as is often the case, the biggest companies may be best positioned to control their fates—and many of the world’s largest property owners have already announced steps designed to speed up the comeback.
In early May real estate powerhouse Brookfield Asset Management said it would spend $5 billion to invest in struggling retail businesses. Brookfield owns 152 million square feet of retail space and another roughly 300 million of offices, hotels and apartments.
“We believe this is a critical component to getting the economy moving again, and we would like to partner with companies and entrepreneurs that can draw on our capital and expertise to stabilize and grow their business,” said RonBloom, head of Brookfield’s private equity division and leader of this retail initiative, in a statement.
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Among publicly held real estate companies, Canadian Brookfield had, for the past year, the most assets ($324 billion), highest revenues ($69 billion), second-highest profits ($2.8 billion) and fourth-highest market cap ($51 billion). These results make Brookfield the biggest public real estate investment company on the planet for the third year running, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2020.
The Global 2000 is our annual ranking of the world's largest and most powerful public companies. The list is based on four equally-weighted metrics: revenue, profit, assets and market value. In all, 35 firms primarily in the business of owning real estate made the list this year—not including firms such as Blackstone
These companiesincludediversified players like Brookfield (which in addition to a range of real estate assets invests in infrastructure and renewable energy), as well more specialized investors such as cell tower owner American Tower Corporation
Each has approached the pandemic fallout differently. Equity Residential, for instance, halted evictions and rent increases for 90 days starting in March. Prologis launched a marketplace offering COVID-19 related deep cleaning and a reopening checklist.
Not all efforts have been well received. In its May earnings release, Simon said it planned to open roughly half its 200 malls by May 15. It has since had to delay in Indiana and New York.
1. Brookfield Asset Management | Canada
Sales: $69.109 billion
Profit: $2.803 billion
Assets: $323.969 billion
Market value: $51.279 billion
2. American Tower Corporation | United States
Sales: $7.760 billion
Profit: $1.905 billion
Assets: $40.789 billion
Market value: $105.507 billion
3. Prologis | United States
Sales: $3.537 billion
Profit: $1.715 billion
Assets: $55.007 billion
Market value: $65.949 billion
4. Simon Property Group | United States
Sales: $5.674 billion
Profit: $2.087 billion
Assets: $31.232 billion
Market value: $20.406 billion
5. Link Real Estate Investment Trust | Hong Kong
Sales: $1.348 billion
Profit: $2.277 billion
Assets: $29.582 billion
Market value: $18.476 billion
6. Equinix | United States
Sales: $5.521 billion
Profit: $507 million
Assets: $23.966 billion
Market value: $58.018 billion
7. Equity Residential | United States
Sales: $2.680 billion
Profit: $968 million
Assets: $21.173 billion
Market value: $24.209 billion
8. Digital Realty Trust | United States
Sales: $3.187 billion
Profit: $580 million
Assets: $23.068 billion
Market value: $38.760 billion
9. Welltower | United States
Sales: $5.121 billion
Profit: $484 million
Assets: $33.381 billion
Market value: $21.033 billion
10. Public Storage | United States
Sales: $2.874 billion
Profit: $1.515 billion
Assets: $11.826 billion
Market value: $32.386 billion
11. AvalonBay Communities | United States
Sales: $2.318 billion
Profit: $784 million
Assets: $19.121 billion
Market value: $22.933 billion
12. Boston Properties | United States
Sales: $2.985 billion
Profit: $921 million
Assets: $21.830 billion
Market value: $15.094 billion
13. Vornado Realty Trust | United States
Sales: $5.321 billion
Profit: $3.148 billion
Assets: $18.287 billion
Market value: $8.374 billion
14. Gecina SA | France
Sales: $1.060 billion
Profit: $1.696 billion
Assets: $22.961 billion
Market value: $9.582 billion
15. L E Lundbergfoeretagen AB | Sweden
Sales: $2.720 billion
Profit: $1.261 billion
Assets: $18.727 billion
Market value: $10.466 billion
16. SEGRO | United Kingdom
Sales: $552 million
Profit: $1.094 billion
Assets: $13.357 billion
Market value: $11.466 billion
17. Annaly Capital Management | United States
Sales: $2.345 billion
Loss: $(4.954) billion
Assets: $96.917 billion
Market value: $8.940 billion
18. Realty Income Corporation | United States
Sales: $1.504 billion
Profit: $436 million
Assets: $18.555 billion
Market value: $18.859 billion
19. Ventas | United States
Sales: $3.873 billion
Profit: $433 million
Assets: $24.692 billion
Market value: $12.069 billion
20. Starwood Property Trust | United States
Sales: $1.299 billion
Profit: $506 million
Assets: $78.042 billion
Market value: $3.662 billion
21. Host Hotels & Resorts | United States
Sales: $5.469 billion
Profit: $920 million
Assets: $12.305 billion
Market value: $8.689 billion
22. Weyerhaeuser Company | United States
Sales: $6.554 billion
Loss: $(76) million
Assets: $16.406 billion
Market value: $16.320 billion
23. Covivio SA | France
Sales: $1.427 billion
Profit: $836 million
Assets: $28.956 billion
Market value: $5.454 billion
24. Alexandria Real Estate Equities | United States
Sales: $1.591 billion
Profit: $245 million
Assets: $19.702 billion
Market value: $19.824 billion
25. Essex Property Trust | United States
Sales: $1.478 billion
Profit: $439 million
Assets: $12.705 billion
Market value: $16.155 billion
26. Dexus | Australia
Sales: $642 million
Profit: $1.076 billion
Assets: $12.535 billion
Market value: $6.544 billion
27. Fibra Uno Administracion SA de CV | Mexico
Sales: $1.005 billion
Profit: $965 million
Assets: $14.975 billion
Market value: $3.262 billion
28. VICI Properties Inc | United States
Sales: $895 million
Profit: $546 million
Assets: $13.266 billion
Market value: $8.163 billion
29. Duke Realty Corporation | United States
Sales: $935 million
Profit: $402 million
Assets: $8.574 billion
Market value: $12.782 billion
30. Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust | Canada
Sales: $592 million
Profit: $901 million
Assets: $10.810 billion
Market value: $5.866 billion
31. Healthpeak Properties | United States
Sales: $1.997 billion
Profit: $44 million
Assets: $14.033 billion
Market value: $13.217 billion
32. Extra Space Storage | United States
Sales: $1.321 billion
Profit: $419 million
Assets: $8.532 billion
Market value: $11.427 billion
33. Chimera Investment Corp. | United States
Sales: $987 million
Profit: $414 million
Assets: $27.119 billion
Market value: $1.455 billion
34. Klepierre (Ex Locabail) | France
Sales: $1.807 billion
Profit: $364 million
Assets: $27.656 billion
Market value: $5.836 billion
35. Mid-America Apartment Communities | United States
Sales: $1.643 billion
Profit: $353 million
Assets: $11.230 billion
Market value: $12.790 billion
June 3, 2020: This story was updated to corrected to show that profits for several companies were in the millions, not billions.
