The word "brutal" probably best describes how 2020 was for mall real estate investment trust (REIT) Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG). Although it survived the downturn better than most of its peers (some of which ended up in bankruptcy court), the company still ended up cutting its dividend by a painful 40%. Things are looking much brighter for the REIT these days, and the recovery looks like it has at least another year to run.

Leading up to the pandemic, mall REITs like Simon were contending with the so-called "retail apocalypse." In a broad sense, consumers were increasingly buying from online stores. But the problem was deeper than that because the retailers getting hit the hardest were those that didn't, or couldn't, adjust to changing consumer habits. Often that was because of heavy debt loads and bloated store counts. 

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Source Fool.com