Real estate investment trusts (REITs) rebounded strongly in June and are up 9.5% in 2026, outperforming the broader market. After years of underperformance due to post-pandemic trends and elevated interest rates, REITs are benefiting from workers returning to offices and malls, data center growth driven by AI, and moderating interest rates. Key performing categories include lodging REITs (up 43%), data center REITs (up 33%), and healthcare REITs (up 20%), while only gaming and telecommunications REITs are down for the year.

Realty Income (O), a REIT specializing in brick-and-mortar retail properties, is presented as a long-term dividend investment opportunity. Despite retail sector challenges, the company maintains 98%+ occupancy rates with strong tenants like Walmart and Home Depot, has paid monthly dividends since 1969 with quarterly increases since 1998, and is exploring new markets including AI data center infrastructure.

Europe's data center construction market is expected to grow from $16.99 billion in 2025 to $58.74 billion by 2031, driven by liquid cooling adoption for AI workloads, digitalization, cloud expansion, and government support. Hyperscale data centers lead investments, with Western Europe and the Nordics dominating due to renewable energy availability and strategic locations.

Digital Realty announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 12.3 million shares by Blackstone affiliates at $185 per share. The offering is contingent on Digital Realty's acquisition of Blackstone's interests in two Northern Virginia data center joint ventures (Digital Carver Dulles 9 and Digital Carver Brickyard), expected to close on June 30, 2026. Digital Realty will not receive proceeds from the secondary offering.

Digital Realty announced the availability of ServiceFabric® Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open protocol that makes infrastructure programmable for Private AI environments across its 800+ global data centers. The platform provides AI-native control surfaces for design, provisioning, discovery, security, and operations integration, enabling enterprises to deploy and manage AI infrastructure at scale without vendor lock-in.

Digital Realty announced the establishment of its Malaysia platform in Cyberjaya, marking a key milestone in its Asia Pacific expansion. The company plans to develop approximately 32 megawatts of data center capacity across three connected facilities (KUL10, KUL11, and a future expansion site), integrating Malaysia into its global PlatformDIGITAL to support AI and data-driven workloads. The inauguration was officiated by Malaysia's Minister of Digital and supported by MIDA and MDEC, reflecting the country's commitment to becoming a regional digital and AI hub.

The global data center colocation market is projected to grow from USD 84.5 billion in 2025 to USD 327.3 billion by 2035, expanding at a 14.5% CAGR. Growth is driven by increasing demand for edge computing, low-latency applications, government digitalization initiatives, and data localization requirements. North America currently holds the largest market share, while Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Resolution Capital sold 2.57 million shares (85% of its stake) in Cousins Properties during Q1 2026, valued at approximately $62.35 million. Despite the fund's exit, the article notes that Cousins Properties remains positioned as a potential office REIT winner due to its focus on premium Class A properties in high-growth Sun Belt markets, strong leasing pipeline, and solid balance sheet metrics.

GSI Capital Advisors fully exited its position in SmartStop Self Storage REIT (SMA) on May 14, 2026, selling 124,919 shares for approximately $4.01 million. Despite the exit, SmartStop's Q1 2026 fundamentals showed improvement with 20% revenue growth and a swing to profitability, though the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 by 38 percentage points over the past year.

Mexico's data center market is projected to grow at 19.32% CAGR from 2025 to 2031, reaching $3.48 billion by 2031 from $1.2 billion in 2025. Growth is driven by AI, IoT, big data adoption, 5G expansion, and government initiatives. Key developments include Latin America's first NVIDIA-backed HPC and AI center in Nuevo León with $1 billion investment, and $7.14 billion in renewable energy projects. Major investors include AWS, Microsoft, Google, Equinix, and Ascenty.

Digital Realty Trust (DLR), a REIT that rents AI data center access, offers investors a 2.5% dividend yield while benefiting from the AI industry's expected 27.5% annual growth through 2034. Though the company paused dividend increases in 2023 to invest in infrastructure, its growing revenue and strong FFO guidance suggest room for future dividend growth.

Digital Realty's board of directors authorized quarterly cash dividends for Q2 2026, including $1.22 per share for common stock and varying amounts for three series of preferred stock, all payable on June 30, 2026 to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2026.