OTC: ZARE

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.

Investment Objectives

Our primary investment objectives are:

•providing current income to our stockholders in the form of consistent cash distributions;

•preserving and protecting our stockholders’ capital investments;

•realizing capital appreciation in our share price from active investment management and asset management; and

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•providing portfolio diversification in the form of multi-asset class investing in direct real property and investing in other real estate-related assets.

There is no assurance that we will attain our investment objectives. Our charter places numerous limitations on us with respect to the manner in which we may invest our funds. In most cases these limitations cannot be changed unless our charter is amended, with the approval of our stockholders.

Investment Strategy

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, industrial, retail and office), data center properties and investments in real estate debt and securities. To a lesser extent, we invest in and/or 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. Our objective is to bring the Ares Management Corporation (“Ares”) leading institutional-quality real assets investment platform to income-focused investors, with significant diversification across real estate and real estate-related asset classes, geographies and sectors. We intend to allocate capital dynamically between sectors and strategies so as to achieve outperformance through strategic diversification rather than outsized risk. We expect real estate debt, non-U.S. jurisdictions and/or infrastructure assets to comprise up to 30% of our assets. Currently, infrastructure is not expected to comprise more than 10% of our assets with a focus on real estate-related infrastructure and renewable energy sources. While we will not limit our investment opportunities to stay within these allocations, we may adjust our expectations based on market conditions and opportunities.

We believe that the real estate market is cyclical, with demand for property types peaking at different times. Although we do not typically invest for the short term, we are active portfolio managers and will seek to take advantage of opportunities to acquire or dispose of assets strategically at different points in the cycle. One reason we focus on multiple property types and markets is to increase our ability to take advantage of these market cycles. We believe that the broader the opportunity set in which to invest our capital, the more selective we can be in choosing strategic and accretive investments, which we believe may result in attractive total returns for our stockholders. Seeing more of the overall real estate market also may allow us to be consistent and meaningful investors throughout different cycles. When we believe one market and/or sector is overvalued, we patiently wait and focus on another market and/or sector that we believe is overlooked or has stronger fundamentals of relative value. We also believe that value generally is based on an investment’s ability to produce cash flow. We generally focus on select, targeted markets that exhibit characteristics of being supply-constrained with strong demand from customers seeking quality space.

Our near-term investment strategy is likely to prioritize new investments in the residential and industrial sectors due to relatively attractive fundamental conditions. Such investments may be in the form of equity or debt, and in particular, we believe that debt investments provide an increasingly attractive risk adjusted return in today’s market environment. We also intend to continue to hold an allocation of properties in the retail and office sectors, the former of which is largely grocery-anchored. To a lesser extent, we intend to invest in credit lease and self-storage, properties in sectors adjacent to our primary investment sectors, real estate-related securities and/or infrastructure. Our investments in real estate-related securities generally will focus on debt or equity issued by public and private real estate companies and/or certain other securities, with the primary goal of such investments being preservation of liquidity in support of our share redemption program, while also seeking income, potential for capital appreciation and further portfolio diversification.

We generally employ a long-term hold strategy for strategic investments within our portfolio of real estate assets. The majority of our current portfolio consists of primarily “core” or “core-plus” properties that have significant operating histories and are substantially leased whereby a significant portion of the total investment return is expected to be derived from current income. In addition, we have invested in and/or may invest in a relatively smaller proportion of “development” properties and/or “value-added” opportunities that have arisen in circumstances where we have determined that a property may be situationally undervalued or where re-development, re-leasing and/or improved asset management may increase cash flows, and where the total investment return is generally expected to have a relatively larger component derived from capital appreciation.

Financing Objectives

We use financial leverage to provide additional funds to support our investment activities. We may finance a portion of the purchase price of any real estate asset that we acquire with borrowings on short or long-term basis from banks, life

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insurance companies and other lenders. We calculate our leverage for reporting purposes as the outstanding principal balance of our borrowings, including secured financings on debt-related investments, less cash and cash equivalents, divided by the fair value of our real property, net investments in unconsolidated joint venture partnerships and investments in real estate debt and securities not associated with the DST Program (determined in accordance with our valuation procedures). For purposes of determining the fair value of our real property, we include the fair value of the properties that are part of the DST Program due to the master lease structure, including our purchase option. Based on this methodology, our leverage decreased to 35.5% as of December 31, 2025, as compared to 41.2% as of December 31, 2024. There are other methods of calculating our overall leverage ratio that may differ from this methodology, such as the methodology used in determining our compliance with corporate borrowing covenants. Our current target leverage ratio is between 40-60%. Although we will generally work to maintain our targeted leverage ratio, there are no assurances that we will maintain the targeted range disclosed above or achieve any other leverage ratio that we may target in the future. Our board of directors may from time to time modify our borrowing policy in light of then-current economic conditions, the relative costs of debt and equity capital, the fair values of our properties, general conditions in the market for debt and equity securities, growth and acquisition opportunities or other factors. See Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Risks Associated with Debt Financing” for additional detail.

Competition

We face competition from various entities for investment opportunities in properties, including other REITs, pension funds, insurance companies, investment funds and companies, partnerships and developers. Many of these entities may have greater access to capital to acquire properties than we have. In addition to third-party competitors, we may compete with other programs sponsored or advised by affiliates of the Sponsor, particularly those with investment strategies that overlap with ours. In addition to competing for attractive investment opportunities, the current leasing and operating environment is also very competitive. See Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Conflicts of Interest” and “—Risks Related to Investments in Real Property” for additional detail.

Significant Customers

We are dependent upon the ability of current customers to pay their contractual rent amounts as the rents become due. As of December 31, 2025, there were no customers that represented more than 10.0% of total annualized base rent or more than 10.0% of total leased square feet. Our 10 largest customers represented 18.2% and 23.7% of total annualized base rent and total leased square feet, respectively. We are not aware of any current customers whose inability to pay their contractual rental amounts would have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. See Item 2, “Properties,” for further detail about customer diversification.

Conflicts of Interest

We are subject to various potential conflicts of interest that could arise out of our relationship with the Advisor and other affiliates and related parties, including: conflicts related to the compensation arrangements among the Advisor, certain affiliates and related parties, and us; conflicts with respect to the allocation of the Advisor’s and its key personnel’s time; conflicts related to our potential acquisition of assets from affiliates of the Advisor; and conflicts with respect to the allocation of investment and leasing opportunities. Further, entities currently sponsored by or that in the future may be advised by affiliates of the Sponsor, and those in which Sponsor-affiliated entities own interests, may compete with us or may be given priority over us with respect to the acquisition of certain types of investments. As a result of our potential competition with these entities, certain investment and leasing opportunities that would otherwise be available to us may not in fact be available. See Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Conflicts of Interest,” for additional detail. The independent directors have an obligation to function on our behalf in all situations in which a conflict of interest may arise and have a fiduciary obligation to act on behalf of our stockholders.

Compliance with Federal, State and Local Environmental Laws

Properties that we may acquire, and the properties underlying our investments, are subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws, ordinances and regulations. Under these laws, ordinances and regulations, a current or previous owner of real estate (including, in certain circumstances, a secured lender that succeeds to ownership or control of a property) may become liable for the costs of removal or remediation of certain hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum product releases at, on, under or in its property. These laws typically impose cleanup responsibility and liability without regard to whether the owner or control party knew of or was responsible for the release or presence of the hazardous or toxic substances. The costs of investigation, remediation or removal of these substances may be substantial and could exceed the value of the property. An owner or control party of a site may be subject to common law claims by third parties based on damages and costs resulting from environmental contamination emanating from a site. Certain environmental laws also

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impose liability in connection with the handling of or exposure to materials containing asbestos. These laws allow third parties to seek recovery from owners of properties for personal injuries associated with materials containing asbestos. Our operating costs and the values of these assets may be adversely affected by the obligation to pay for the cost of complying with existing environmental laws, ordinances and regulations, as well as the cost of complying with future legislation, and our income and ability to make distributions to our stockholders could be affected adversely by the existence of an environmental liability with respect to our properties. We will endeavor to ensure our properties are in compliance in all material respects with all federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations regarding hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum products.

Employees

We have no employees. Pursuant to the terms of the Advisory Agreement, the Advisor assumes principal responsibility for managing our affairs and we compensate the Advisor for certain services.

Available Information

Our internet address is www.areswms.com/solutions/areit. Through a link on our website, we make available, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and prospectus, along with any amendments to those filings, as soon as reasonably practicable after we file or furnish them to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

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