US REIT M&A activity ramp-up extends into early months of 2026

M&A activity involving US publicly traded equity real estate investment trusts continued to ramp up in the early months of 2026, with four new deals totaling $16.77 billion announced in the year through April 15.

Three of the deals were privatizations of public equity REITs. The fourth deal involved a public REIT acquiring another public REIT.

The analysis included real estate deals in which either the buyer or the target is an equity REIT listed on the Nasdaq, NYSE or NYSE American.

2026 deals

Whitestone REIT's announced privatization by Ares Management Corp. on April 9 marked the most recent REIT M&A deal. Under the terms of the deal, Ares will acquire all outstanding common shares of the shopping center REIT for $19 apiece in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.67 billion. The $19-per-share price represents a 12.2% premium to Whitestone's closing stock price on April 8, the last full trading day prior to the transaction announcement, and a 26.5% premium to the REIT's closing share price before March 5, when Reuters reported that the REIT had engaged advisers to help it explore a sale.

Public Storage announced its agreement to acquire fellow self-storage REIT National Storage Affiliates Trust on March 16 in an all-stock transaction valued at about $10.5 billion. Under the deal terms, National Storage shareholders will receive 0.14 of a share of Public Storage common stock for each share they owned, representing a total consideration of $41.68 per share based on Public Storage's closing share price on March 13, the trading day prior, representing a premium of about 34.7%.

Both self-storage REITs' share prices have increased since the deal announcement. As of April 16, Public Storage's share price was up 1.4%, and National Storage's stock price rose 36.4%.

Veris Residential Inc. agreed to be acquired by an investor group comprising Affinius Capital Advisors LLC, Vista Hill Partners LLC and GIC Real Estate Inc. in an all-cash transaction for $19 per share, representing a transaction value of about $3.4 billion. The transaction price represents a 23.2% premium to Veris' unaffected closing share price on Feb. 4 and a 27.5% premium to the REIT's 30-day volume-weighted average price for the period ended Feb. 4.

On Feb. 2, Peakstone Realty Trust announced its definitive agreement to be taken private by Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. for $21 per share in cash, representing a transaction value of about $1.20 billion. The $21-per-share purchase price represents a 34.4% premium to the REIT's closing price on Jan. 30, the last full trading day prior to the deal announcement.

REITs continue to trade at large discounts to NAV

The US REIT sector as a whole continues to trade at large discounts to consensus net asset value (NAV) estimates, while all four US REIT M&A deals announced so far in 2026 included targets trading at a significant discount to NAV.

An analysis of US REITs with at least $200 million in market capitalization showed the US REIT sector closed the first quarter at a median 19.3% discount to their respective consensus NAV per share estimates, with office, timber and hotel REITs trading at the largest median discounts.

REITs trading at large discounts to NAV could be more attractive targets for M&A activity.