NEW YORK CITY—The outlook for the US REIT sector as a whole hasbeen upgraded to "positive" for 2015, FitchRatings says. What the ratings agency terms “secularchanges” are responsible for enhancing credit profiles within thesector, and Fitch says it believes they'll be maintained for theforeseeable future.

Specifically, those secular changes include “portfolio focus andtactical diversification, lower risk growth strategies, goodliquidity management, minimal share repurchase risk andenhancements to capital access via at-the-market equity programs,”according to the Fitch report, prepared by a team of analysts ledby managing director Steven Marks. “All of theseelements are currently reflected in Fitch's issuer ratings andRating Outlooks; in many cases, issuers with Positive RatingOutlooks have embraced many of these credit-enhancing ratingdrivers.”

Fitch says it's maintaining its “stable” ratings outlook for USequity REITs in the coming year, in view of its expectations for“continued solid liquidity driven by good access to capital,improving property-level fundamentals across nearly all assetclasses and lower-risk strategies.” Since 2010, Fitch says, 14% ofits rating actions on REITs have been upgrades, 6% were downgradesand the remaining 80% were affirmations. “Upgrades have generallybeen driven by issuer-specific circumstances, such as deleveragingefforts or improved access to capital, and do not reflect broadercyclical trends within the sector.”