The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that CIBC analyst Alex Avery believes the coming years will not be more of the same for REIT issuers and investors. The Post's Barry Critchley, writing in Off the Record, says that Mr. Avery expects the new world to be characterized by lower and decelerating growth, where issuers will have a number of "less potent growth strategies." He adds, "We expect constraints on growth could lead Canadian REITs to deliver lower average returns (potentially materially lower) over the next five and 10 years." Mr. Avery, who estimates that lower refinancing costs have contributed about 40 per cent of the growth in funds from operations, argues REITs in the future will lack the tailwind of interest cost savings with each refinancing and declining cap rates. Against such a backdrop, Mr. Avery thinks that the REITs will still be focused on growth, but to achieve that goal, issuers could look for opportunities elsewhere, especially in the United States. RioCan, Chartwell and Extendicare have all sold their U.S. properties to focus on the Canadian market, others including Agellan, Artis, Granite, H & R, Morguard, and Pure Industrial are busily expanding their U.S. portfolios.