Editor's note: This article is published monthly with current data as available.

Capital markets activity by US equity real estate investment trusts fell sharply in April.

REITs raised a total of $3.19 billion in the month, a 42.8% decline from the $5.59 billion raised in March and a 61.3% drop from the prior-year period. A majority of the funds raised in April came via debt as REITs secured $2.70 billion through notes offerings, while common equity offerings accounted for the remaining $494.6 million, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Crown Castle tops capital-raising list

Communications-focused Crown Castle Inc. brought in the most capital during the month, raising $1.35 billion through two debt offerings. The company intends to use net proceeds of both offerings to repay the REIT's outstanding debts and to pay the related fees and expenses.

Single-tenant REIT Realty Income Corp. followed with $1 billion via offerings of $600 million in unsecured notes due 2033 and another set of unsecured notes worth $400 million due in 2028.

– Set email alerts for future Data Dispatch articles. – Access a spreadsheet listing the offerings completed year to date in 2023 by publicly listed US equity real estate investment trusts. – For further capital offerings research, try the global real estate capital offerings activity template.

The single largest common equity offering during the first four months of 2023 was industrial REIT Rexford Industrial Realty Inc.'s $644.0 million offering completed March 31. Communication-focused Uniti Group Inc.'s $2.60 billion offering, which wrapped up Feb. 2, was the largest debt offering completed year to date.

Communication REIT American Tower has attracted the most capital year to date at $2.80 billion, followed by Uniti Group at $2.60 billion. Industrial REIT Prologis Inc. ranked third with $2.56 billion of capital raised as of the end of April.

Specialty sector leads year-to-date capital offerings

The offerings in April brought the year-to-date total to $19.85 billion, about 32.9% lower than the capital raised during the same period in 2022.

The specialty sector — advertising, casino, communications, datacenter, energy infrastructure, land and timber real estate — accounted for the largest share of total capital raised year to date at $8.66 billion. The industrial sector was next at $4.19 billion, followed by the retail sector at $3.89 billion.