Stock Performance Drives REIT Compensation Gains

NEW YORK CITY-Thanks in large measure to rebounds in stock prices, compensation levels within the REIT industry increased last year by a median of 3% to 15%, depending on employee level, according to a new study by locally based FTI Schonbraun McCann Group. Similarly, the compensation survey conducted for the Washington, DC-based National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts found that pay increases to REIT employees exceeded expectations.

“REITS were not immune to the downturn in the financial markets,” Jeremy Banoff, managing director of FPL Consulting, which conducted the 2010 NAREIT Compensation Survey, said in a video interview conducted by the association’s Matt Bechard. As a result, when FPL surveyed REIT leaders a year ago, their predictions of compensation increases over the next 12 months were generally “minimal,” Banoff said. Come 2010, however, “the actual increases that took place were healthier.”