Baron Real Estate Income Fund

Welltower Inc. (WELL) is a $70 billion diversified health care owner and manager of senior housing, including assisted and independent living. Core to its strategy is to partner with top-tier operators and health systems while providing operators access to its proprietary data analytics platform.
We are optimistic about the prospects for Welltower given the substantial opportunity for cyclical recovery and continued secular growth in its senior housing business through occupancy and rent growth. The company also benefits from its proven ability to recycle capital at attractive rates of returns, premier health care platform, partnerships with top-tier operators, and well-respected management team focused solely on creating value on a per-share basis.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is a network-neutral operator of more than 270 data centers in 70-plus metro areas across over 30 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It offers highly reliable facilities and low-latency interconnection among enterprises, networks, and cloud service providers.
Equinix benefits from several long-term secular trends, including increasing internet traffic, IT outsourcing, cloud computing, AI, and mobility. As data and customer needs become more global, Equinix should be able to leverage its leading global data center platform. We believe Equinix can continue to grow through new data center development, rent increases, and the addition of value-added services supplemented by accretive acquisitions that increase market penetration and reach.

Prologis, Inc. (PLD) is the world's largest industrial REIT, with a $100 billion global portfolio. 
In our view, industrial real estate has attractive fundamentals over the next several years, with organic growth among the highest across all real estate asset types. Stabilizing demand—driven by the growth of e-commerce, inventory building, and the need for infill locations to service last-mile delivery—should help absorb a sharp decline in new supply deliveries. We believe Prologis is well positioned to benefit from this favorable fundamental backdrop, supported by its strong assets, markets, management, and balance sheet.

Ventas, Inc. (VTR) is a REIT with a $35 billion-plus portfolio of about1,400 properties across senior housing, medical office, hospitals, and life sciences properties.
We believe Ventas' well-located portfolio is poised to benefit from strong organic growth. In particular, Ventas' senior housing properties are cyclically depressed due to idiosyncratic reasons stemming from the pandemic, in our view. We see evidence that occupancy has bottomed and is primed to rebound substantially, as senior housing is a needs-based product with strong demographic forces around the forthcoming "silver wave" demand. Construction activity in the sector remains subdued and should position the company for favorable growth.

The Macerich Company (MAC) is a REIT that owns a high-quality portfolio of mall properties, primarily in California, New York, and Arizona.
Macerich should benefit from favorable real estate fundamentals for high-quality, well-located retail properties, with tenant demand exceeding available space and generating rent growth. The recent appointment of a new CEO to lead Macerich through a multi-year business transformation should also help simplify the company’s portfolio, reduce debt, and improve growth prospects. We believe the stock is undervalued and a successful conversion will result in a higher valuation multiple over time.

EastGroup Properties, Inc. (EGP) is an industrial REIT that owns and operates approximately 65 million square feet of business distribution properties located in high-growth U.S. markets, with a primary focus on Texas, Florida, California, Arizona, and North Carolina.
In our view, industrial real estate has an attractive fundamental outlook over the next several years, with organic growth that is at the high end of real estate broadly. An eventual reacceleration in demand—driven by improving business confidence, the growth of e-commerce, inventory building, and the need for infill locations to service last-mile delivery—is poised to occur at a time when new supply has fallen sharply. We believe EastGroup is well positioned to benefit from this expected growth, given its strong assets, markets, management, and balance sheet.

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (HST) is the largest hotel REIT involved in the buying, owning, redeveloping, and leasing of primarily upscale and luxury full service hotels in convention, resort, and major urban business markets. The company has interests in 94 hotels with 52,139 rooms.
We think Host Hotels has a solid growth opportunity through its strategy of enhancing the value of the hotels in which it takes an interest or acquires, by purchasing and improving underperforming assets at attractive prices. The company has an investment grade balance sheet, and we believe it will successfully be able to increase room rates that are currently 4% off of CPI adjusted peak rate, as well as margins currently 300 basis points off peak.

Equity Residential (EQR) is the largest U.S. apartment REIT, with over 75,000 units and a portfolio valued at over $35 billion, focused largely on coastal markets such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.
Equity Residential is a blue-chip apartment REIT, with high-quality assets in markets with high barriers to entry, a proven management team, a state-of-the-art operating platform, and a strong balance sheet. Tenant demand for apartments remains strong, driven by low housing inventories and changing demographics. Following a period of decelerating rent growth driven by elevated new construction levels, we think Equity Residential should begin to see stabilizing rent growth.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a leading global provider of large-scale data center services to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators. The company has 310 data centers in over 50 metro areas around the globe, with 51% of revenue in North America and the remainder in other regions worldwide.
Digital Realty enjoys strong growth prospects driven by cloud adoption, IT/data center outsourcing, and emerging AI applications. With a recurring revenue model, a sticky customer base with long-term leases, scale advantages, and a strong management team, we think Digital Realty is well positioned to take share. It offers a comprehensive suite of services through its acquisitions of Telx Group (network dense interconnection provider), Equicity (eight European assets), DuPont Fabros (U.S.-based wholesale operator), Ascenty (Brazil-based operator), and InterXion (Europe).

Public Storage Incorporated (PSA) is the largest self-storage operator with an $80 billion portfolio. The company is structured as a REIT.
Public Storage is a blue-chip company within the self-storage industry with, we believe, an excellent platform, proven management team, and pristine balance sheet. The self-storage industry is an attractive business owing to its relatively high, less cyclical, long-term growth prospects, low capital intensity, and high returns on capital. Self-storage fundamentals remain strong. Management expects to grow cash flow by double-digits this year, and valuation screens as attractive, in our view.