DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2025

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Unless the context otherwise requires, the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” refers to Ares Real Estate Income Trust Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. We are externally managed by Ares Commercial Real Estate Management LLC (the “Advisor”) and consider Ares real estate to be our sponsor (the “Sponsor”).

Ares Real Estate Income Trust Inc. is a Maryland corporation formed on April 11, 2005. We are primarily focused on investing in and operating a diverse portfolio of real property and investing in other real estate-related assets. We currently focus our investment activities primarily across the major U.S. property sectors (residential (which includes and/or may include multi-family and other types of rental housing such as manufactured, student, and single family rental housing), industrial, retail and office (which includes and/or may include medical office and life science laboratories)), data center properties and investments in real estate debt and securities. To a lesser extent, we intend to strategically invest in geographies outside of the U.S., which may include Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and other foreign jurisdictions, and in other sectors such as credit lease and self-storage, properties in sectors adjacent to our primary investment sectors and/or infrastructure, to create a diversified blend of current income and long-term value appreciation. As of December 31, 2025, our consolidated real property portfolio consisted of 143 properties. We operate seven reportable segments: residential properties, industrial properties, retail properties, office properties, data center properties, other properties and real estate debt and securities. As used herein, the term “commercial” refers to our industrial, retail, office and data center properties or customers, as applicable. See “Note 18” for information regarding the financial results by segment.

We believe we have operated in such a manner as to qualify as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) for U.S. federal income tax purposes, 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 an operating partnership, AREIT Operating Partnership LP (the “Operating Partnership”), of which we are the sole general partner and a limited partner.

We are currently offering shares pursuant to a securities offering and intend to operate as a perpetual-life REIT, which means that we intend to offer shares of our common stock on a continuous basis through our ongoing primary offerings and our distribution reinvestment plan. See “Note 10” for detail regarding our securities offerings.