Baron Real Estate Income Fund

Welltower Inc. (WELL) is a $45 billion diversified health care owner, primarily in senior housing (assisted and independent living). Core to its strategy is to partner with top-tier operators and health systems while providing operators access to its proprietary data analytics platform.
We are optimistic about the prospects for Welltower given the substantial opportunity for cyclical recovery and continued secular growth in its senior housing business through occupancy and rent growth, coupled with the company's ability to recycle capital at attractive rates of returns, premier health care platform, partnerships with top-tier operators, and well-respected management team focused solely on creating value on a per-share basis.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is a network neutral operator of 260 data centers across 70 metro areas and 33 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It provides highly reliable facilities and offers low latency interconnection to and among business partners, networks, and cloud service providers.
We believe Equinix benefits from several key long-term secular trends, including increasing internet traffic, IT outsourcing, cloud computing, AI, and mobility. As data and customer needs become more global, Equinix should also be able to leverage its leading global data center platform. We believe Equinix can continue to grow through new data center development, rent increases, and the addition of value-added services supplemented by accretive acquisitions that increase market penetration and reach.

Prologis, Inc. (PLD) is the world's largest industrial REIT, with a $100 billion global portfolio. 
In our view, industrial real estate has attractive fundamentals, with organic growth among the highest across all real estate asset types. Strengthening demand, driven by the growth of e-commerce, inventory building, and the need for infill locations to service "last mile" delivery, continues to absorb elevated supply deliveries. Given Prologis's assets, markets, management, and balance sheet, we believe the company is well positioned to continue benefiting from this favorable fundamental backdrop.

Equity Residential (EQR) is the largest U.S. apartment REIT, with over 75,000 units and a portfolio valued at over $35 billion, focused largely on coastal markets such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.
Equity Residential is a blue-chip apartment REIT, with high-quality assets in markets with high barriers to entry, a proven management team, a state-of-the-art operating platform, and a strong balance sheet. Tenant demand for apartments remains strong, driven by low housing inventories and changing demographics. Following a period of decelerating rent growth driven by elevated new construction levels, we think Equity Residential should begin to see stabilizing rent growth.

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (AVB) is a REIT that owns, develops, redevelops, acquires, and manages over 80,000 high-quality apartment communities valued at more than $40 billion in high-barrier-to-entry U.S. coastal markets. 
AvalonBay is a best-in-class apartment REIT, with a high-quality portfolio, a healthy balance sheet, and a seasoned management team. While near-term comparable fundamentals may remain challenged after outsized growth years, we believe the company will drive cash flow growth longer term through rent growth on its core portfolio and accretive external growth activities (development and acquisitions).

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a leading global provider of large-scale data center services to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators. The company has 310 data centers in over 50 metro areas around the globe, with 51% of revenue in North America and the remainder in other regions worldwide.
Digital Realty enjoys strong growth prospects driven by cloud adoption, IT/data center outsourcing, and emerging AI applications. With a recurring revenue model, a sticky customer base with long-term leases, scale advantages, and a strong management team, we think Digital Realty is well positioned to take share. It offers a comprehensive suite of services through its acquisitions of Telx Group (network dense interconnection provider), Equicity (eight European assets), DuPont Fabros (U.S.-based wholesale operator), Ascenty (Brazil-based operator), and InterXion (Europe).

Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) is a $30 billion REIT that owns and operates a diversified portfolio of office and retail buildings, mostly in New York.
We believe Vornado is trading at a highly discounted valuation relative to its liquidation value. In addition, Vornado has several of sources of embedded value in its portfolio that we believe offer additional upside potential. These sources include the improvement in the NYC office portfolio as office workers return, the bottoming of the NYC retail portfolio, and the development of the Penn District. Management appears open to pursuing paths to simplify and improve shareholder returns.

American Tower Corporation (AMT) is the largest independent wireless tower operator worldwide, with more than 240,000 towers in 20 countries on five continents.
Increasing demand for wireless data coverage is driving leasing activity by wireless carriers, with mobile data growing more than 25% per year. Since zoning for new towers is difficult to obtain, leasing on an existing tower (tenant colocation) or modifying existing equipment (amendment) is typically the best option. American Tower has been expanding internationally as well. We expect new tenants and higher colocation activity to drive continued strong organic cash flow growth. We believe American Tower will continue to acquire tower portfolios opportunistically.

GDS Holdings Limited (GDS) is a market-leading China-based operator of data centers with over 50 data centers, five Tier 1 markets, and approximately 450,000 square meters in service. More than 50% of its revenue comes from top Chinese internet companies.
We believe that, as the preferred provider to Alibaba and Tencent, as well as many other large emerging technology companies, GDS is poised to benefit from the explosive growth in cloud computing in China. Cloud adoption is still in the early stages in China, and GDS is capturing more than its fair share of incremental deployments due to its proven track record and carrier-neutral value proposition.

Ventas, Inc. (VTR) is a REIT that owns a $35 billion portfolio of 1,300 properties across senior housing, medical office, hospitals, and life sciences properties. 
We believe Ventas' well-located portfolio is poised to benefit from strong organic growth. In particular, we believe Ventas' senior housing properties are cyclically depressed due to COVID-19-related idiosyncratic reasons. We believe occupancy has bottomed and is primed to rebound substantially, as senior housing is a needs-based product with strong demographic forces around the forthcoming "silver wave" demand. In addition, construction activity in the sector remains subdued and should set up the company for favorable growth.

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