Brookfield REIT Returns Down For Second Straight Month
Brookfield Real Estate Income Trust, a $2.4B property fund owned by Brookfield Asset Management, experienced its second consecutive monthly decline in returns in December, citing the impact of higher borrowing costs on its property values in a letter to stockholders filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Returns were down 1.6% in December, which followed a 1.9% decline in November. Since its inception in 2019, the fund had previously experienced only one monthly drop in returns.
“Throughout 2022, third-party valuation firms began adjusting assumptions regarding property valuations that are a key component of our net asset value calculation, leading to some recent downward valuation movements in our portfolio,” Brookfield said in the letter.
The REIT said the operating performance of its assets “continues to be strong,” although its return for all of 2022 was 12.6%, down from 23.3% in 2021.
The fund holds multifamily assets, offices and logistics properties, mainly in the United States. In late 2021, the fund completed its biggest deal, the acquisition of the 497K SF DreamWorks Animation campus on 15 acres in Southern California for $327M. The sale-leaseback deal keeps DreamWorks in the property until 2035.
The fund isn't the only one hit with economic turbulence. Blackstone and Starwood limited redemptions from their nontraded REITs after withdrawal requests exceeded quarterly caps, and institutional investors in U.S. CRE are seeking to minimize their exposure to property funds managed by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Prudential Financial.
