CHICAGO—JLL Income Property Trust, an institutionally managed daily NAV REIT with a national portfolio, has just published its first quarter results, and company officials see a lot of reasons for optimism. Not only is real estate performing well, but some of the worries that many observers were expressing about the new administration in Washington have dissipated.

“We generally see the fundamentals across all of the four primary real estate types as very strong, and they continue to improve,” Allan Swaringen, president and chief executive officer, tells GlobeSt.com. “Real estate is also, historically, a lagging asset class.” Therefore, the economy's good to moderate growth over the past few years means commercial real estate has excellent prospects. He expects increasing occupancy, declining vacancy rates and solid rent growth this year, although perhaps at a slower pace than seen in 2015 and 2016.

Swaringen says the trust has built a portfolio of safe, diversified core properties designed to provide its 12,000 stockholders with steady returns. In the first quarter, it achieved a total net return of 1.8% on Class M shares. And it has paid dividends for twenty-one consecutive quarters, with an average annualized dividend growth rate of 5.6% over that time period.