When investors consider purchasing real estate investment trusts (REITs), they often look for popular issues that have been performing well recently. But it’s not always the most well-known REITs that outperform their peers.

That was the case in March, as the three best-performing REITs last month were less well-known issues, and two of the three scarcely had any news to report.  Take a look at the three best-performing REITs during the month of March.

Life Storage Inc. (NYSE:LSI) is a Buffalo, New York-based self-storage REIT with approximately 1,200 facilities encompassing 68 million square feet in 37 states and Washington, D.C.

That potential was confirmed on Feb. 23, when Life Storage released its fourth-quarter operating results, in which it beat analysts’ estimates on both funds from operations (FFO) and revenue.

Life Storage led all REITs in March with a total return of 7.45%.

President and CEO Eric Cremers and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jerald Richards attended two investor conferences in early March. Investors must have liked what they heard because PotlatchDeltic finished the month with a total return of 7.35%, making it the second-best-performing REIT in March.

Lumber prices were fairly soft in March because builders were playing it safe and not stocking much inventory. But perhaps investors were looking ahead with hopes that the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates, thereby spurring a better housing market for the rest of 2023.

Analysts are somewhat mixed on PotlatchDeltic. There have been eight new analyst ratings over the last 90 days, with four Strong Buys, one Buy and three Holds.

PotlatchDeltic has announced it will release first-quarter 2023 earnings on April 24. 

There wasn’t much news during March to propel Tanger Factory Outlet higher, but the shares managed to rally anyway. Tanger Factory Outlet had a total return of 4.75% for the month.

One reason may have been the fourth-quarter 2022 operating results on Feb. 21, in which both FFO and revenue increased from the fourth quarter of 2021. Another catalyst was on March 21 when Goldman Sachs analyst Caitlin Szczupak (Burrows) reinstated a Buy recommendation on Tanger Factory Outlet and announced a $22 price target. The stock finished March at $19.63.

Over the past five years, private market real estate investments have outperformed the publicly traded REIT market by about 50%. Check out Benzinga’s Real Estate Offering Screener to discover the latest passive real estate investments.

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