Business Description

The Company Ares Real Estate Income Trust Inc. is a net asset value (“NAV”)-based perpetual life REIT formed on April 11, 2005, as a Maryland corporation. We are primarily focused on investing in and operating a diverse portfolio of real property and investing in other real estate-related assets. As of December 31, 2025, our consolidated real property portfolio consisted of 143 properties, totaling approximately 30.5 million square feet located in 34 markets throughout the U.S. As used herein, the terms “AREIT,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” refer to Ares Real Estate Income Trust Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, except where otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires. We have operated and elected to be treated as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2006, and we intend to continue to operate in accordance with the requirements for qualification as a REIT. We utilize an Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust (“UPREIT”) organizational structure to hold all or substantially all of our assets through AREIT Operating Partnership LP (the “Operating Partnership”), a Delaware limited partnership, of which we are the sole general partner and a limited partner. We rely on the Advisor, a related party, to manage our day-to-day activities and to implement our investment strategy pursuant to the terms of that certain Amended and Restated Advisory Agreement (2025), effective as of April 30, 2025 (the “Advisory Agreement”), by and among us, the Operating Partnership, and the Advisor. The current term of the Advisory Agreement ends on April 30, 2026, subject to renewal by our board of directors for an unlimited number of successive one-year periods. The Advisor performs its duties and responsibilities under the Advisory Agreement as a fiduciary of us and our stockholders. We intend to offer shares of our common stock on a continuous basis. We also intend to conduct an ongoing distribution reinvestment plan offering for our stockholders to reinvest distributions in our shares. During 2025, we raised $335.5 million of gross proceeds from the sale of common stock in our ongoing securities offerings, including $31.6 million from the sale of common stock under our distribution reinvestment plan. See “Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information about our securities offerings. Additionally, we have a program to raise capital through private placement offerings by selling beneficial interests (“DST Interests”) in specific Delaware statutory trusts (a “DST” or multiple “DSTs”) holding real properties (the “DST Program”). These private placement offerings are exempt from registration requirements pursuant to Rule 506(b) of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). Under the DST Program, each private placement will offer interests in one or more real properties placed into one or more DSTs by the Operating Partnership or its affiliates (each, a “DST Property” and collectively, the “DST Properties”). DST Properties may be sourced from properties currently indirectly owned by the Operating Partnership or newly acquired properties. We anticipate that these interests may serve as replacement properties for investors seeking to complete like-kind exchange transactions under Section 1031 (“Section 1031 Exchanges”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Similar to our prior private placement offerings, we expect that the DST Program will give us the opportunity to expand and diversify our capital raise strategies by offering what we believe to be an attractive and unique investment product for investors that may be seeking replacement properties to complete Section 1031 Exchanges. We also make loans (the “DST Program Loans” and, each individually, a “DST Program Loan”) to finance up to 50% of the purchase price of DST Interests paid by certain purchasers of the interests in the Delaware statutory trusts. During 2025, we sold $1.22 billion of gross interests related to the DST Program, $99.8 million of which were financed by DST Program Loans. Refer to “Note 7 to the Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional detail regarding the DST Program.…