Although June 17, 1982, marks the official beginning of the NCREIF organization, the difficult task of uniting a highly competitive industry actually began in the late 1970's. Following several meetings, 14 investment managers agreed in principle to form a not-for-profit entity to foster research on the real estate asset class. This led to the development of a database consisting of property operating information, which used to be known as the Russell/NCREIF Property Index (the Frank Russell Company used to publish the Index). On January 1, 1995, thirteen years after its inception, NCREIF assumed full responsibility for the Index, including its publication and distribution. The index became the NCREIF Property Index (NPI), our flagship index.

It is important to note that the NCREIF Property Index (NPI) consists of both equity and leveraged properties, but the leveraged properties are reported on an unleveraged basis. So, the Index is completely unleveraged.

NCREIF also produces the following indices:

• Timberland and Farmland Indices, both of which contain properties held in a tax-exempt, fiduciary setting.
  
  
• Fund Indices: In First Quarter 2005, NCREIF published the first in a series of Fund Indices. The NCREIF Fund Index - Open End Diversified Core Equity (NFI ODCE) is now being published on a quarterly basis and is available to all members of NCREIF. The next index in this series will be an All Open End Fund Index, which is expected to be released shortly. We will spend 2006 focusing on the creation of indices for Closed End and Opportunity Funds.

In addition to producing indices, NCREIF collects data on operating income and expenses on not only the tax-exempt properties in the NPI, but also on properties held in public REITs and other taxable properties, as well as non-core property types. NCREIF Members have access to this data via a query screen in the Data Access Log In area of our web site.

NCREIF's database also contains valuation/lease data, transaction data, and a myriad of other useful data points that are all used to create useful reports and tools for our members.

To learn more about the NCREIF Property Index (NPI), you can find information under our web site’s FAQs tab, and also by clicking on one of the following links: