There are three industry benchmarks used to measure Fund-level
performance and property-level performance: the NCREIF Property Index; the NCREIF
Open-End Index; and the NCREIF Fund Index - Open End Diversified Core Equity
(NFI-ODCE). Out of the three, the NFI-ODCE currently offers the most appropriate
benchmark for evaluating MEPT's total performance.

The most widely used real estate benchmark, the NCREIF Property
Index (NPI), is composed of approximately 6,290 institutional grade, operating
properties valued at over $305 billion. The NPI is designed to measure the performance
and return characteristics of a set of core properties on an unleveraged basis.
The properties are pooled from different types of funds and single-investor
portfolios, all with varying investment strategies. The return data for the
NPI can be analyzed by sector and region, as well as subsectors and sub-regions.
The return data is also available on a historic basis and can be used for complex
analysis. Since the NPI is derived from property level performance, it does
not measure the effect of cash, leverage or management fees on returns, nor
does it take into consideration differences in property valuation frequency
in the Index. When benchmarked against MEPT's property level returns (operating
real estate only), the NPI does provide an apples to apples, or real estate
to real estate, comparison of performance.
NCREIF has developed a sub-index, the NCREIF Open-End Index (OPI), comprised
of only those properties in the NPI owned by open-end funds. MEPT believes that
the sub-index offers an even more applicable benchmark than the NPI to measure
the performance of MEPT's real estate, since it allows for the comparison of
properties that are more frequently valued than those in the NPI as open-end
funds have more stringent valuation requirements than privately held and single
investor portfolios. The most relevant comparison would be the performance of
MEPT's operating real estate portfolio to the performance of the OPI. NewTower,
MEPT's Trustee, relies on this benchmark to conduct quarterly attribution analyses.
In 2005, NCREIF released an open-end Fund level index, the NCREIF Fund Index
- Open End Diversified Core Equity (NFI-ODCE). Different from the NPI, the NFI-ODCE
is comprised of only open-end funds, and excludes all the closed-end and separate
account real estate portfolios. The NFI-ODCE index reports on both a historical
and current basis the results of 26 open-end, commingled funds pursuing a core
investment strategy. Currently, the benchmark includes funds with total market
value of $70.2 billion. The index includes property investments at ownership
share, cash balances and leverage, allowing it to reflect the fund's actual
asset ownership positions and financing strategy. The NFI-ODCE is best suited
as a benchmark from MEPT since it specifically covers core funds and the effects
of their cash balances and leverage on fund performance. Since open-end funds
in the NFI-ODCE have different strategies, the funds may perform well at different
times in the real estate/economic cycle. Therefore, it makes sense to look at
long-term comparisons of the NFI-ODCE because the performance of the varying
fund strategies can be tested throughout all stages of the real estate cycle.
MEPT's long-term returns have consistently outpaced the benchmarks. A dollar
invested in MEPT in 1982 at the Fund's inception has significantly outgrown
that same investment in the NCREIF Property Index and the NFI-ODCE.
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