Sales volume for alternative sectors — medical office, mobile and manufactured, R&D, self-storage, student housing, age-restricted, cold storage, and data center — jumped 41% year over year in the first quarter of 2024, according to MSCI's capital trends report for 2024 Q1.

It was a big relative win to the overall 16% year-over-year market decline. However, it was also heavily weighted on the merger of HealthPeak and Physicians Realty Trust in March, which lead to a 239% year-over-year change in medical office. Without that, the alternatives deal volume would have been down 17% year over year, roughly matching general market performance.

"The self-storage sector also benefited from portfolio deals in the quarter, posting a 4% increase in volume versus the first quarter of 2023," they wrote. In the first quarter, sales volume of $1.6 billion was 17% higher than the average first quarter volumes over the last 10 years.