Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate –
Part Six: Taxes II

The sixth piece in the Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate series delves deeper into taxes. Those who own commercial real estate property may have the opportunity to take advantage of significant tax benefits when investing in a REIT. These benefits stem from deferring long-term capital gains tax, which requires diving deeper into some of the tax fundamentals discussed in the last piece. Read on for this overview and a discussion of two options for commercial real estate property owners to reap these benefits. Further, be sure to check out articles one, two, three, four and five if you missed them.

Taxes 201: Long-term capital gains tax deferrals

Investors pay capital gains tax when they sell an investment for a higher price than they purchased it. For example, someone who buys a $20 investment and sells it for $25 incurs $5 in capital gains. This gain is taxed in specific long-term capital gains brackets for investments held for a year or longer. Also, it is possible to defer taxes by investing in a traditional IRA or 401(k). 

One key reason to defer these taxes is to increase your overall return. Imagine an investor defers $100 in long-term capital gains tax, and that money remains in an investment that earns a 10% annual return. If the investor finally sells the investment and must pay the capital gains tax in 20 years, that $100 has now grown to approximately $670. They’ll still owe the $100, and the other $570 is subject to taxation based on the long-term capital gains brackets. Even if the investor’s in the highest long-term capital gains tax bracket, they’ll still earn roughly $450 in additional profit

Option 1: The 1031 Exchange

Those who own a business property may have two opportunities to reap this type of tax benefit. The first is through a 1031 exchange, which allows someone to defer paying capital gains tax when selling a property. Specifically, the property owner must reinvest the funds into a ‘like-kind’ property defined by the IRS, though most real estate properties meet this criteria. However, note that U.S. properties must be exchanged with other U.S. properties and non-U.S. properties must be exchanged with non-U.S. properties.

Investors can use the 1031 exchange when investing in a REIT. Specifically, they would sell a business property into a Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs), which allows the owner to sell the DST to an affiliated REIT manager through electing a 721 exchange (discussed below). By doing this, any funds subject to capital gains tax would instead remain invested in the REIT, so the owner could defer paying those capital gains until they liquidated their assets from the new property. 

Option 2: The 721 Exchange

Another option for commercial property owners is a 721 exchange, or an UPREIT (Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust) transaction. Rather than sell the property like in a 1031 exchange, the property owner contributes it to a REIT fund. They then become an operating partner of the fund via ownership units that can be converted into REIT shares. Throughout this process, capital gains tax is deferred until the original property owner liquidates the ownership units or REIT shares.

Beyond the tax benefits, an UPREIT exchange comes with additional benefits:

  • Elimination of property management responsibilities
  • Diversification via acquiring OP units in a fund that contains a portfolio of commercial real estate holdings
  • Quarterly income distributions
  • Estate simplification
  • Professional management with capital markets expertise who can benefit from an UPREIT structure through its original financing

Those who are interested in NOYACK’s logistics REIT can explore whether they qualify for a 721 exchange. 

*Please consult a tax professional about your personal portfolio and tax needs.*

Want more?

Future articles in this series will dive into the various ways that our logistics REIT can add value.

Join Our Newsletter

Enter your email below so you can stay up to date with all things Logistics.

A Closer Look at Mobility Hubs and Their Benefits

In this explainer video, we explore the concept of ‘Mobility Hubs’ and how they are revolutionizing the way goods and services make their way to consumers.

Mobility Hubs are centralized locations that serve as a final stop for packages, a place for autonomous fleets to recharge and undergo maintenance, and provide a safe place for critical need services to be delivered. By using these hubs, businesses can improve the efficiency and speed of their operations, while also reducing the impact on urban congestion and the environment. Watch our video to learn more about Mobility Hubs and how they are changing the future.

Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate –
Part Five: Taxes

Taxes 101

Investment returns can be taxed in one of two ways. The first is capital gains, which is when an investment’s price increases between the purchase and sell date. If an investor bought a stock for $20 and sold it for $25, they will owe $5 in capital gains taxes. If they hold the asset for less than a year before selling it, they will pay short-term capital gains, meaning the gains will be added to their taxable income and overall federal income taxes. If they held the investment for a year or longer, they will instead pay a long-term capital gains tax where their return is taxed based on specific income-driven brackets that are generally lower than their federal income tax brackets.  

Investment returns can also be taxed if an investment directly passes along income such as dividends for stocks and interest for bonds. In most instances, this income is added to someone’s taxable income and taxed based on their federal income tax brackets. One notable exception is qualified dividends

 

Unique REIT Tax Considerations

REITs operate with a unique structure that create some differences in how investors incur and pay taxes. That’s because REITs are required to pass along at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholder, which means that this distribution is the primary means through which an investor is taxed.  

Within this distribution, income can be classified into one of three categories that each have different tax implications: 

  • Capital Gains Profit: Any income that a REIT manager acquired from selling underlying commercial properties held in the fund’s portfolio. If the manager sold the property after a year, the investor who receives the income is taxed based on long-term capital gains tax brackets. This source of income may also be subject to the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. 
  • Operating Profit: Any income earned through underlying commercial properties such as rent. Investors will generally pay ordinary income taxes on this source of income and may be subject to the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. 
  • Return of Capital: Any income that may be deemed nontaxable. This situation is most common when REIT managers deduct depreciation-related expenses from the REIT’s underlying real estate holdings. In this scenario, they can reclassify operating profit as return of capital up to the amount of the depreciation-related expense. 

 

REIT Tax Benefits

In addition to its unique structure, REITs also have some unique tax benefits that can serve investors. The first is the 20% Qualified Business Income Deduction, which may allow REIT managers to deduct up to 20% of operating profit income from their taxes. Investors will receive this tax benefit regardless of their taxable income, which makes this deduction incredibly compelling.

Second, REITs avoid double taxation. For many investments like stocks, businesses must pay a corporate income tax on the company’s yearly taxable income. These taxes directly reduce how much money that a company can either reinvest in the business or distribute to investors. REIT managers do not have to pay corporate income taxes, which increases the pool of money that managers pass to investors via distributions.

*Please consult a tax professional about your personal portfolio and tax needs.*

Want more?

Future articles in this series will dive into the various ways that our logistics REIT can add value.

Join Our Newsletter

Enter your email below so you can stay up to date with all things Logistics.

Noyack’s Thought Leadership Presentation – If Interest Rates Remain High, What Should You Do?

As we enter the final weeks of a volatile year, savvy investors need to closely monitor this evolving economic situation. Key Takeaways:

  • Why are interest rates high?
  • What does history tell us about these times?
  • What should investors consider doing to protect their portfolios?
Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate –
Part Four: Retirement Planning

The fourth piece in our “Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate” series focuses on retirement planning. Individuals investing for retirement should understand the value of real estate in their portfolio. Investors can no longer unlock their wealth’s full potential by relying on the “traditional” mix of stocks and bonds that once served them so well.

Read on for an overview of real estate’s value in retirement plus a three-step process for how to invest in NOYACK’s logistics REIT. Be sure to check out articles one, two and three in our series if you missed them. 

Retirement 101

Retirement investors often want to check a few boxes with their investments. One of the most important ones is to maintain a consistent source of income in support of spending needs. REITs are a great choice to check this box because they must pass along 90% of their income via dividends, which introduces a level of income consistency that’s difficult to find in other investments.

Many investors also seek stability because selling a volatile investment at a low can lock in losses and introduce sequence-of-return risk. REITs achieve stability for retired investors through the 90% income distribution mandate by giving their investors a consistent source of income, allowing them to reduce their sequence-of-return risk that would be assumed through the inopportune liquidation of traditional assets. Further, REIT property managers can also raise rents in response to inflation-driven instability, and our logistics REIT even includes properties with special provisions that move in lockstep with certain inflation measures. We offer even further stability through diversification in our real estate. Specifically, we invest in five broad property asset classes and also diversify within each category. 

Step 1: Determine eligibility

Investors looking to make an allocation to real estate for their retirement account must first determine whether they meet the qualifications to be an accredited investor with one of two criteria. First, anyone qualifies if their income exceeds $200,000 ($300,000 with a spouse) for the two prior years and is reasonably expected to maintain that income for the following year. Second, anyone qualifies if their net worth (either or alone or with a spouse) exceeds $1 million.

Depending on how you qualify, you have three options to verify your accredited investor status. You can verify both income or net worth through obtaining written confirmation from a broker-dealer, registered investment advisor, licensed attorney, or CPA. More details about this option and the other two are discussed here

Step 2: Confirm suitability 

If those investing for retirement qualify, they must also consider a few parameters around investing in the fund. First, there is a minimum investment of $20,000. Second, they must consider how much income that they would like to receive annually while invested. The fund targets an approximately 6% annual cash flow and an investment return that is between two and two-and-a-half times its initial value at the end of the 5-7 year time horizon. Investors can reinvest their annual cash flows if they would like to increase the amount they receive at the end of their investment time horizon, but this will limit how much money they can access during this period.  

Step 3: Rollover funds

Finally, individuals looking to invest in our logistics REIT through an IRA must have a self-directed IRA, which is similar to a typical IRA except that it allows investors to purchase alternative investments such as private real estate. NOYACK can help you to find a provider to help set up this account as well as rollover funds from another IRA or 401(k) into the self-directed IRA. 

Want more?

Future articles in this series will dive into the various ways that our logistics REIT can add value.

Join Our Newsletter

Enter your email below so you can stay up to date with all things Logistics.

Taking Advantage of Shifting Needs in Commercial Real Estate

Noyack’s Inaugural Thought Leadership Presentation on “How Do Inflationary Times Offer Unique Investment Opportunities”

 

  • Reimagining conventional real estate assets through Mobility Hubs

  • Logistics assets are undervalued relative to the market maturity of eCommerce

  • REITs deliver much-needed relief from daily market stress in the form of low volatility and high yields

3 Reasons NOYACK Remains Confident When Interest Rates Rise

 

On Wednesday, November 2nd, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percent. This hike is the sixth time that the organization raised interest rates in 2022, and it marks the fourth consecutive time that rates have been raised by 0.75%. 

Those invested in real estate might be concerned about how rising interest rates impact REIT investments. We’re not concerned about its impacts on our logistics REITs for the following three reasons. 

1: REITs do better than you may think in high-rate environments

Investors are often concerned that higher interest rates can negatively impact real estate returns. Many property owners rely on financing to hire labor, purchase building materials and even purchase properties. When interest rates increase, financing costs can increase, which hurts profitability.

However, REITs have historically performed well in lieu of these costs. Data from the S&P Dow Jones shows that REITs have strong overall performance despite periods of high inflation. Further, in four of the last six high-interest rate environments, REITs earned a positive return. They even outperformed the S&P 500 in three of those periods. Given this information, there may be less of a connection between REITs and high interest rates than previously thought.

Further, our logistics REIT allows us to finance many properties at lower interest rates than today. Through our UPREIT structure, we can acquire properties and maintain their original financing, which includes the interest rates that were often determined years ago. These rates are often notably lower than what we’ve seen in recent days.

2: Our properties can raise revenue alongside interest rates

The Fed is quickly raising interest rates because of how quickly inflation is growing. In September, inflation increased at its fastest pace in the past 40 years. In response, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to tame rising prices by increasing the cost of borrowing.

Interest rates and inflation are closely connected in this environment, and that’s good news because our REIT is designed to hold up well against inflation. Real estate in general holds up well to inflation because property owners need significant time to build new property. As a result, these owners can charge higher prices on their rent in response to inflation given the lack of options.

Further, many of our REIT properties directly raise rents and prices with inflation. Our logistics and warehouses are under special long-term contracts that require annual rent raises in accordance with the CPI index, which is a common measure of inflation change over time. In addition, parking within our mobility hubs operate under dynamic pricing, which allows us to immediately raise costs in response to inflationary environments.

3: Rates don’t impact our long-term investment conviction

We believe in long-term investments within logistics real estate given how much supply is outpacing demand. In the past 5 years, digital commerce has grown 140% to a $2.4 trillion market opportunity, yet the supply of real estate infrastructure to meet that demand has increased only 25%. As consumers demand better digital commerce experiences, those who invest in properties that support these experiences have the potential to reap significant profits. This long-term outlook isn’t negatively impacted by high interest rates.

In fact, high interest rates can even be an advantage. High rates are causing building prices to fall, which allows us to purchase properties at more affordable prices and therefore provide investors with better long-term returns.  

Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate –
Part Three: Supply and Demand

The third piece in the Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate series focuses on supply and demand. Within the topic are some nuances that showcase the value of real estate both generally and within our real estate asset classes. 

Read on for a refresher on the topic, how supply and demand impact other investments differently than real estate, and why logistics REITs are particularly well-suited to profit from the imbalance. Don’t forget to check out articles one and two if you missed them. 

Supply and Demand 101

Supply is how many goods are produced at a certain price point, and demand is the number of goods desired or purchased at a certain price point. As price increases, supply tends to increase as businesses want to sell more goods for a higher profit, and demand tends to decrease as fewer customers can afford the goods. In equilibrium, the amount of goods supplied equals demand at a particular price, so equilibrium establishes an optimal point where price and quantity sold are set. 

These ideas are built on assumptions that don’t always hold. For instance, supply or demand can be inelastic, which means they cannot freely shift. If supply is inelastic, the business may be unable to increase production with demand increases. In this scenario, the business can charge a higher price for the same amount of goods to narrow the growing pool of interested customers. 

How supply and demand affect investments

Most investments are traded on an exchange where supply and demand have a degree of elasticity. If more consumers demand a stock, they’ll place more orders to purchase it via an exchange. In response, traders can sell more of their available stock to investors. They may also increase their asking price for stocks, but they can also pull the lever of increasing supply.

With investment real estate, it’s much more difficult to increase supply because property can take months or years to develop. As a result, property owners can raise prices in high-demand environments and still sell the real estate, and investors, therefore, earn additional profits.

One real estate subcategory that’s experiencing particular demand increases is logistics commercial real estate. First, the pandemic caused companies to reckon with increased costs and inefficiencies from international supply chains. As a result, both large and small companies are participating in onshoring, or relocating supply chains to exist within their domicile. Second, consumers have new lifestyle preferences and needs. They now prefer delivery within the same day (or a few hours), and they’re more interested in organic and healthy products, which often require storage in cold warehouses before delivery.

Our logistics REIT capitalizes on supply and demand:

Our logistics REIT allows investors to capitalize on the above demand increases as well as supply inelasticities. In fact, we’re using these trends to prioritize some of our five asset classes in 2023:

  • Mobility Hub properties are part flexible parking garage, part fulfillment center, and part fleet management depot for ride-sharing services and last-mile delivery—developed and operated right where the customers are in the urban core rather than the urban periphery. These additions can support both onshoring and consumer lifestyle needs, and supply is also particularly low because few (if any) organizations are optimizing parking structures in this way.
  • Cold storage properties allow online groceries and meal services to remain cool throughout transportation, which supports consumer lifestyle preferences and needs. Further, supply is particularly inelastic for cold storage because it’s more difficult and expensive to build the appropriate safety protocols. 
  • Dry storage properties store consumer goods at room temperature, distinguishing them from cold storage. Since supply has kept up with demand, we’re focusing on acquiring facilities within specific criteria that would allow for cold storage conversion or partial conversion.

Want more?

Future articles in this series will dive into the various ways that our logistics REIT can add value.

Join Our Newsletter

Enter your email below so you can stay up to date with all things Logistics.

Let’s Talk Logistics Real Estate –
Part Two: Recession

The second piece in the Let’s Talk Logistics series focuses on investment stability in recessions. It’s a particularly newsworthy topic given our current market environment. Equities, bonds, and even some alternative investments have all fared poorly. Given this unique environment, it’s important to consider additional investment options that are better accommodated to hold up such as private investments.

Read on for more on why investors should prioritize stability in recessions, how some typically stable investments have held up, and why logistics REITs are designed to provide safety in this market.

Stability 101

In recessionary environments, stability is important because it helps investors avoid the negative consequences of volatility or erratic and significant price movements. In market downturns, highly volatile investments can experience sharp price drops. Investors want to avoid this scenario because if they must sell, they’re locking in returns at a relatively low price. Another consequence of selling at a low is that it forces an investor to withdraw a greater proportion of their portfolio. When a market rally occurs, they’ll have less money invested to soak up a high return.

That last concern is particularly important for early retirement investors because of sequence-of-return risk, or the chance that negative returns occur when an investor begins to withdraw from their portfolio. This scenario can drain a larger proportion of their portfolio early into retirement and reduce the likelihood that their portfolio will sustain their retirement needs. For these reasons, it’s important to have a healthy amount of your portfolio in investments that remain stable even in market downturns.  

How typically stable investments are faring

Investors typically use bonds to provide stability in recessions, but most aren’t holding up well given rising interest rates amid inflation. Bond yields have fallen, and corporate have performed particularly poorly since recession fears have introduced concerns around financial distress. Treasuries and shorter-duration bonds are faring better, but this stability comes at the expense of long-term return given that these yields aren’t outpacing inflation.

Other stable investments have also performed poorly. With rising interest rates, tangible assets like gold are hitting two-year lows. With typically stable investments experiencing volatility, investors might wonder where they can go to maintain stability.

Why our logistics REIT is more stable:

NOYACK’s logistics REIT is a solid option for investors in this environment for a few reasons. First, it’s part of the REIT asset class that generally offers stability. These investments are required to distribute almost 90% of their taxable income in the form of dividends via their rental income, which is prone to remain stable even amid large market swings. Second, REITs can offset inflation through price raises in rent contracts. (Our properties even have special provisions that raise rent in lockstep with inflation.)

Second, our logistics REIT offers unique diversification benefits. We invest across five broad property asset classes: Dry storage, cold storage, life sciences, medical offices, and mobility hubs. Each property represents growth opportunities in different industries. We also diversify within each individual category, with some examples provided below:

  • Life Sciences properties are dedicated to performing medical research. Some of these properties specialize in supporting treatment and research to cure diseases for aging populations. Other focus on agricultural tech, which researches sustainable food production to feed populations.
  • Mobility Hub properties are enhancing parking structures to better utilize the space as the need for parking wanes in the coming decades. These properties can choose from an assortment of mobility-centered additions including Amazon & Walmart delivery lockers, EV charging stations and robotic delivery drone hubs.
  • Cold storage properties are rising given the need to keep goods cool through transportation. For instance, online grocery sales and meal services require spaces to store cold food before they reach consumers. In pharmaceuticals, cold storage is needed to store and distribute Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines.

Want more?

Future articles in this series will dive into the various ways that our logistics REIT can add value.

Join Our Newsletter

Enter your email below so you can stay up to date with all things Logistics.