Les Loffman
Co-Chairman of the National REIT Practice, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary U.S. LLP
"I think REITs will continue to grow, continue to thrive. The best evidence is that REIT-like vehicles are growing all over the world. The U.K. and Germany are close to adopting REIT legislation. I suspect both will have legislation within the next 12 to 18 months."

Steven Brown
Managing Director & Portfolio Manager, Neuberger Berman
"The REIT industry is embarking on a period of rapid market capitalization growth and dominance as it becomes the preferred means of investing in commercial real estate. The mall REIT sector reflects best where the rest of the REIT industry is headed. Going forward, REITs will be the dominant and/or majority owners of the core property sectors in the U.S. These consist of retail, office, industrial and residential. Institutional investors wishing to allocate to these sectors will need to consider REITs first.

We anticipate that the REIT industry will be a beneficiary of the globalization of real estate. More U.S. REITs will own non-U.S. assets and more non-U.S. property companies will adopt a REIT-equivalent structure. We see greater convergence of U.S. and non-U.S. REITs through indexes, trade conferences and other means. We believe that within 10 years the global REIT universe will be greater than $1 trillion."

Greg Whyte
Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
"I think that we're going to continue to see REITs move to more integrated and diverse business models, with the liberalization of income tax restrictions. Also, there will be more global convergence. We are seeing many more investors invest in foreign markets. REITs are expanding business models in order to invest in foreign markets. To me, the next really great wave is going to be global."