Real estate is an exciting and fast-paced space to invest in, and this rings truer than ever as a new year kicks off. In this segment of Backstage Pass, recorded on Dec. 22, Fool contributor Deidre Woollard shares with fellow Fool contributor Rachel Warren the key trend she's watching in the real estate market for 2022.
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Deidre Woollard: For me, the biggest question is office real estate and what's been happening now. I think it's just a fascinating trend because it's been such a wildcard. It's been so hard to call. We've seen retail bounce-back, we've seen hospitality bounce-back,
Airbnb (ABNB 0.10%) has had a really great year. But then you've got this wildcard of office, and it just has become even more of a wildcard with what's happening now with the pandemic and more potential shutdowns. Yet you've got companies that have invested heavily in physical spaces.
Google (GOOG -1.96%) (GOOGL -1.97%) has had a few big purchases this year, Amazon (AMZN -1.65%) as well, Facebook (META -10.56%). You've got a Trophy Properties, SL Green (SLG -2.45%), which is a REIT we follow, another one Vanderbilt Property in New York. Big gorgeous tower, got some record numbers for leases, which is really surprising in this climate. Yeah. Right. Really interesting.
Rachel Warren: I would not have expected that. [LAUGHTER]
Woollard: It's funny, office isn't over but it is shifting. I think one of the ways that it's shifting that investors can keep an eye on is that it's going toward the idea of the office isn't the place you go every day.
The office is the place you go maybe to be in touch with the brand, to similar to what you do with retail, but if you're actually an employee. It's the place where I think they'll be more visiting the office versus inhibiting the office.
That's interesting because it really connects to everything. It connects obviously to things like Zoom (ZM -0.99%), but it connects to things like Apple (AAPL 0.52%). There's really this follow all the way along you think about things like cybersecurity.
One of the spaces that I like to follow is data center REITs and the amount of data that we're consuming that just keeps going for I think about stocks like Digital Realty Trust (DLR 0.63%). There's really the repercussions of this, I think, are fascinating for investors in so many different spaces.
