WASHINGTON, DC—Another day, another REIT that has caved to pressure by an activist investor. This week (to date at least) it was Charlotte, NC-based Campus Crest Communities' turn. The company announced that it retained management consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal North America to reposition the company and put in place interim top executives from the firm. Last month the company tapped an investment bank to explore its strategic options. Possibly the REIT would have taken these steps on its own, but it has clearly been under pressure from activist investor Clinton Group.

Campus Crest is hardly alone. Last week Associated Estates approved a $2.5 billion merger with an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management after a year-long campaign from investor Jonathan Litt to do something.

Litt also wants to see changes at Macerich, especially after it spurned Simon Property Group's $22.4 billion acquisition bid.

Meanwhile, shareholders are clamoring for change at American Realty Capital Properties.

Perhaps the most high-profile example, though, came in 2014 when activist investors Related Fund Management and Covex Management successfully pushed to replace CommonWealth REIT board of directors.

Activist shareholders are nothing new to such industries as technology, but until the CommonWealth episode they were relatively rare in real estate.

Clearly, those days are a memory now as seemingly by the week REITs announce changes in response to activist pressure. The question is, what accounts for the uptick.

There are many reasons, ranging from the tempered REIT earnings forecasts for this year and next to the short-term orientation of these investors, Scott Robinson, clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies Schack Institute for Real Estate and director of the REIT Center at NYU, tells GlobeSt.com.

Market cycle timing also has much to do with the recent activity, he says. "Obviously the broad stock market has benefited from favorable credit markets, historically low interest rates, increased corporate cash, and strong stock market performance. This has set the stage for non-real estate activists, where they have been very active."

At the same time these firms have been able to follow the lead of the "early cycle" REIT activists, which have a strong real estate expertise, most notably Land & Buildings and Related/Corvex's Commonwealth effort, he says. "As the broader stock market growth cycle has become more advanced, some of the non-real estate activists have shifted their attention on REITs, building on the momentum of these early dedicated activists.

Also REIT earnings forecasts for 2015 and into early 2016 have been tempered during the past few quarters, despite a belief that the broader economy could be recovering more rapidly, Robinson says. "This is causing dedicated REIT investors to be more selective in their capital allocation, resulting in some differentiation in REIT stock price performance."

Finally, activist investors chaff against REIT's long-term orientation. "Since real estate has many natural characteristics that make a quasi-fixed income cash flow stream, REIT managers run their business with a decidedly long-term focus, Robinson says. "This is generally at odds with activists, who demand immediately results."

For all these reasons, the pressure is unlikely to ease. The impact of activists could range from more M&A, public market spin-outs, divestitures to private market owners, and even more IPOs buoyed by increased investor appetite, Robinson says.

The most likely targets are companies that are underperforming their peers or that consistently trade at a discount to NAV, says Phil Denning, New York City-based managing director at strategic communications firm ICR and co-head of the firm's real estate and financial services corporate communications industry groups.

“Activist funds have expanded their war chests and no company or industry is immune from scrutiny" he tells GlobeSt.com.

For the most vulnerable REITs, "we expect to see an increase in shareholder activism, proxy fights and other hostile advances."