One door can be locked. The other just rations you.

There are three legal wrappers for owning non-traded real estate, and they look almost identical on the income statement — a 5-8% distribution, a slow-moving NAV, professional management. The only difference that matters is the exit. And most investors pick the wrong one for the wrong reason.

The "safer" structure isn't safer — it just fails differently

A non-traded NAV REIT (BREIT, Starwood SREIT) runs a discretionary redemption plan. The board can lower it, or suspend it entirely. Starwood SREIT froze almost all redemptions in April 2026. BREIT pro-rated for 16 straight months. The door can be locked.

So investors reach for the interval fund, because its quarterly repurchase offer is legally mandatory — Rule 23c-3 says the sponsor cannot suspend it. That sounds like the safe choice.

It isn't. "Mandatory offer" does not mean "you get your money." It means the fund must offer to buy ~5% — and when more than 5% wants out, everyone is pro-rated. Versus VCMIX filled about 16% of redemption requests for 13 quarters in a row. The door can't be locked, but it hands you 16 cents on the dollar and tells you to re-queue for the rest.

The takeaway

It's an iron triangle: continuous availability, full execution, an NAV-level price — you get two, never three. The NAV REIT keeps the price but can deny availability. The interval fund guarantees the offer but rations execution. A listed REIT gives you both — at a price that repriced 38-83% below NAV the day it listed.

Before you wire money into any of them, read two filings the brochure won't show you: the redemption fill-rate history and the return-of-capital line. They tell you which corner of the triangle you're actually buying.

Read the full forensic breakdown →

— Jorge