July 22 (Reuters) -

Real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities ( ARE )

narrowly beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter

funds from operations (FFO) on Monday as rents increased.

It operates spaces across North America for lease to tenants

from the life sciences industry, including Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY )

, Moderna ( MRNA ) and Eli Lilly ( LLY ).

Alexandria's quarterly adjusted FFO, a key performance

measure for REITs, came in at $2.36 per share, above analysts'

estimates of $2.34 per share, according to LSEG data.

Rental rates in the second quarter increased 7.4% from last

year.

However, total leasing activity in the quarter has fallen to

1.1 million rentable square feet, compared with 1.3 million a

year ago.

Demand for lab spaces from the life sciences industry is

normalizing after a boost during the pandemic.

Alexandria's total revenue for the quarter ended June 30

rose 7.4% to $766.7 million, compared with estimates of $780.1

million.

(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta and Aishwarya Jain in

Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)