10 CRE Assets Ranked By Their Ability to Withstand Inflation

Overall, the CRE market is not entirely insulated from the impacts of rising inflation, as it tends to increase the cost of labor, construction and operations, which ultimately adds pressure on supply and demand trends and can increase the probability of interest rate hikes. But some commercial real estate assets classes are more affected by inflation than others. "Generally speaking, the faster an asset class can increase its net operating income through rental rate increases while the lower its operating expenses are as a percentage of rental revenue, the stronger the hedge it offers against the erosion of real returns during high inflationary periods," says Ian Formigle, Chief Investment Officer of CrowdStreet. CrowdStreet analyzed common commercial property types and ranked them across a spectrum, based on the level of control owners have over NOI and asset value. On the following slideshow, CrowdStreet ranked 10 asset classes from strongest to weakest according to their ability to serve as inflation hedges.