Last year’s mantra was something for everyone, from duration income streams with inflation-linked dividend growth all the way down to deep recovery hopes in retail. The sector had a very good year, rising by a tad under 30% against the FTSE 100 up by 14%. The best performing shares were in the self-storage and logistics sectors, followed from a very low base by retail landlords. Something indeed for everyone. Nothing changes on the 1st of January, but it tends to focus the mind and the thought process, and this year it was a very simple and basic one, namely, ‘buy the discounts’.

There aren’t many to choose from, because in the long era of ultracheap money, a whole wave of ‘new REITs’ offering exposure to a variety of property sectors have floated on the market and gone on to raise fresh equity to grow businesses, with many having market capitalisations over £1bn now. That they can raise equity is a function of two things. First, they offered a high level of “So far this year, and it’s mid-February as I type,

“So far this year, and it’s mid-February as I type, ‘income’ REITs have not performed very well”