Malls Rebound to Become Top-Performing U.S. CRE Sector

Widely considered an endangered property type following the COVID-19 pandemic, malls are now the top-performing sector in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Mall values are up 13% over the past year, more than double the increase in overall commercial real-estate prices, the WSJ reported, citing Green Street data.

“In terms of how we think about the malls today fundamentally, this is probably the best it’s felt post-Covid,” Ronald Kamdem, head of U.S. REIT and CRE research at Morgan Stanley, told the WSJ.

Although lackluster returns in multifamily and office are pushing some investors toward retail and mall properties, malls also have resilient consumer spending and limited retailer bankruptcies in their favor. Shares of Simon Property Group surpassed their previous record high in July for the first time since 2016, and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has reconsidered its plans to exit the U.S. mall sector, recently buying out its partners in two West Coast properties.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 7-10 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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