Amid social distancing measures, the need for office space is starting to dwindle as more employees are getting accustomed to working from home. In particular, bank executives are having to deal with this new normal and thus, are rethinking their real estate options amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
Per a Real Deal article, a “survey by professional services firm Accenture found that about 61 percent of bank executives don’t expect to call all employees back to the office. And more than 40 percent of those surveyed are also planning to reduce their real estate footprints accordingly.”
To address this new workplace landscape, a number of firms are ready to implement a model that calls for employees to work in-office three days a week and remotely two days a week.
“One of the things the traders have said they miss is that informal dialogue and idea sharing that happens,” Accenture’s capital-markets practice head Laurie McGraw told Bloomberg. “All of that is gone now. You talk with the people that are on your meeting schedule for the day for the most part. And the fluidity of idea exchange is missing in a lot of cases.”
The Real Estate ETF Trade
Traders will want to keep on an eye on when playing leveraged real estate ETFs like the Direxion Daily MSCI Real Est Bull 3X ETF (NYSEArca: DRN) and Direxion Daily MSCI Real Est Bear 3X ETF (NYSEArca: DRV).
Overall, Direxion ETFs will help traders:
- Magnify your short-term perspective with daily 3X leverage
- Go where there’s an opportunity, with bull and bear funds for both sides of the trade; and
- Stay agile – with liquidity to trade through rapidly changing markets
The MSCI US IMI Real Estate 25/50 Index (M2CXVGD) is designed to measure the performance of the large-, mid- and small-capitalization segments of the U.S. equity universe that are classified in the real estate sector as per the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS).
Investors who want broad exposure to the real estate market via ETFs can start with the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (NYSEArca: VNQ). VNQ seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation by tracking the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Real Estate 25/50 Index that measures the performance of publicly traded equity REITs and other real estate-related investments. VNQ is up 7.26 percent year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance Performance numbers.
For more market trends, visit the ETF Trends.
