DEI vs KRC: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. DEI and KRC share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined DEI and KRC exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Douglas Emmett, Inc. is a self-administered real estate investment trust that owns and operates one of the most geographically concentrated portfolios in the listed REIT sector. As of mid-2026 it holds about 18.2 million square feet of office space across 75 properties, split between West Los Angeles (roughly 10.2 million square feet across 57 properties), the San Fernando Valley (about 6.8 million square feet across 16 properties) and Honolulu (about 1.2 million square feet across 2 properties). Alongside that sits a multifamily business of roughly 4,410 stabilized apartment units across 15 properties, weighted toward Honolulu (about 2,506 units) and West LA (about 1,904 units), with roughly 1,035 more units in development. Office contributes about 78 percent of annual rent and multifamily about 22 percent, and West LA alone accounts for roughly 65 percent of total rent. The company leases to a deep base of small and mid-sized tenants, many of them law, medical, entertainment and financial firms that want a specific Westside address, and it builds, renovates and converts buildings rather than simply collecting rent on them.

Full DEI guide

Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC), founded in 1947 and headquartered in Los Angeles, is a real estate investment trust that owns, develops, acquires, and manages premier office and life science properties concentrated in coastal West Coast markets: the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and Austin. Its stabilized portfolio spans roughly 16 to 17 million square feet, weighted toward modern, amenity-rich buildings, and roughly 70% of annualized base rent comes from technology and life science tenants. As a REIT, Kilroy leases space under multi-year contracts, collects rent, and distributes most of its taxable income to shareholders, earning returns from a mix of in-place rent, development projects delivered at attractive yields, and long-term appreciation of well-located real estate.

Full KRC guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• DEI drivers: Supply-constrained West LA submarkets; Leasing momentum that the occupancy number hides.
• KRC drivers: Leasing momentum and occupancy recovery; Life science and prime-asset repositioning.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Concentration is the first risk and it is deliberate: a single metropolitan area drives most of the rent, so a Los Angeles-specific shock (entertainment production leaving the state, an earthquake, an insurance market that reprices coastal California) hits the whole portfolio at once. For KRC, the dominant risk is structural: hybrid and remote work may permanently reduce office demand, keeping occupancy, rents, and asset values below pre-pandemic norms and pressuring FFO for years.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick DEI if you believe its drivers more; KRC if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the DEI and KRC guides.

DEI. For a REIT, GAAP earnings per share are close to useless as a valuation input because non-cash depreciation on real estate swamps the result, which is why DEI can guide to a 2026 net loss of $0.20 to $0.16 per share while generating about $56 million of AFFO in a single quarter. On guidance of roughly $1.39 to $1.43 in FFO per share against a share price near $11.66, the stock trades at roughly 8 times FFO, and the annualized $0.76 dividend represents a bit more than half of that FFO. The company ended the quarter with about $355 million of cash and runs G&A at about 4.9 percent of revenue, which it describes as the lowest in its benchmark group.

KRC. REITs are best valued on FFO rather than GAAP earnings, because depreciation makes net income a poor proxy for cash generation. At a share price near $40 and 2026 FFO guidance around $3.56 at the midpoint, KRC trades at roughly 11x forward FFO, a discount to higher-occupancy net-lease and residential REITs, reflecting the market's caution on office. The dividend yield above 5% is supported by an FFO payout ratio well under 100%, though the 2026 FFO step-down from 2025 reflects dilution from asset sales rather than operational decline.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): DEI shows revenue (ttm) ~$1.01 billion, ffo per fully diluted share (q2 2026) ~$0.37 (flat year over year), fy 2026 ffo guidance ~$1.39 to $1.43 per fully diluted share, fy 2026 office occupancy guidance ~75% to 77%; KRC shows revenue (fy 2025) ~$1.11 billion, ffo per share (fy 2025) ~$4.20, ffo per share (q1 2026) ~$0.91, 2026 nareit ffo guidance ~$3.49 to $3.63.

DEI and KRC are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined DEI and KRC exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.