HIGHWOODS PROPERTIES, INC.

Our vision is to be a leader in the evolution of commercial real estate for the benefit of our customers, our communities and those who invest with us. Our mission is to create environments and experiences that inspire our teammates and our customers to achieve more together. We are in the work-placemaking business and believe that by creating exceptional environments and experiences, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our shareholders. By creating and operating commute-worthy places, we support the growth and success of our customers and contribute to the vitality of our communities. Our simple strategy is to own and operate high-quality workplaces in the BBDs within our footprint, maintain a strong balance sheet to be opportunistic throughout economic cycles, employ a talented and dedicated team and communicate transparently with all stakeholders. We focus on owning and managing buildings in the most dynamic and vibrant BBDs. BBDs are highly-energized and amenitized workplace locations that enhance our customers’ ability to attract and retain talent. They are both urban and suburban. Providing the most talent-supportive workplace options in these environments is core to our work-placemaking strategy.

Our investment thesis is to generate attractive and sustainable returns over the long term for our stockholders by developing, acquiring and owning a portfolio of high-quality, differentiated office buildings in the BBDs of our core markets. A core component of this strategy is to continuously strengthen the financial and operational performance, resiliency and long-term growth prospects of our existing in-service portfolio and recycle those properties that no longer meet our criteria.

Revenues

Our operating results depend heavily on successfully leasing and operating the office space in our portfolio. Economic growth and office employment levels in our core markets are important factors, among others, in predicting our future operating results.

The key components affecting our rental and other revenues are average occupancy, rental rates, cost recovery income, new developments placed in service, acquisitions and dispositions. Average occupancy generally increases during times of improving economic growth, as our ability to lease space outpaces vacancies that occur upon the expirations of existing leases. Average occupancy generally declines during times of slower or negative economic growth, when new vacancies tend to outpace our ability to lease space. Asset acquisitions, dispositions and new developments placed in service directly impact our rental revenues and could impact our average occupancy, depending upon the occupancy rate of the properties that are acquired, sold or placed in service. Another indicator of the predictability of future revenues is the expected lease expirations of our portfolio. As a result, in addition to seeking to increase our average occupancy by leasing current vacant space, we also concentrate our leasing efforts on renewing existing leases prior to expiration. For more information regarding our lease expirations, see “Item 2. Properties – Lease Expirations” and “Item 1A. Risk Factors – Risks Related to our Operations. The continued social acceptance, desirability and perceived economic benefits of work-from-home arrangements could materially and negatively impact the future demand for office space over the long-term” in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Occupancy in our office portfolio decreased from 87.1% as of December 31, 2024 to 85.6% as of June 30, 2025. We expect average occupancy in our office portfolio to range from 85.0% to 86.0% for the remainder of 2025.

Whether or not our rental revenue tracks average occupancy proportionally depends upon whether GAAP rents under signed new and renewal leases are higher or lower than the GAAP rents under expiring leases. Annualized rental revenues from second generation leases expiring during any particular year are typically less than 15% of our total annual rental revenues. The following table sets forth information regarding second generation office leases signed during the second quarter of 2025 (we define second generation office leases as leases with new customers and renewals of existing customers in both consolidated and unconsolidated office space that has been previously occupied and leases with respect to vacant space in acquired buildings):

(1) Weighted average per rentable square foot on an annual basis over the lease term.

Annual combined GAAP rents for new and renewal leases signed in the second quarter were $33.63 per rentable square foot, 17.6% higher compared to previous leases in the same office spaces.

We strive to maintain a diverse, stable and creditworthy customer base. We have an internal guideline whereby customers that account for more than 3% of our revenues are periodically reviewed with the Company’s Board of Directors. As of June 30, 2025, only Bank of America (3.9%) and Asurion (3.5%) accounted for more than 3% of our annualized GAAP revenues.

Expenses

Our expenses primarily consist of rental property expenses, depreciation and amortization, general and administrative expenses and interest expense. From time to time, expenses also include impairments of real estate assets. Rental property expenses are expenses associated with our ownership and operation of rental properties and include expenses that vary somewhat proportionately to occupancy and usage levels, such as janitorial services and utilities, and expenses that do not vary based on occupancy and usage levels, such as property taxes and insurance. Depreciation and amortization is a non-cash expense associated with the ownership of real property and generally remains relatively consistent each year, unless we buy, develop or sell assets, since our properties and related building and tenant improvement assets are depreciated on a straight-line basis over fixed lives. General and administrative expenses primarily consist of management and employee salaries and benefits, corporate overhead and short and long-term incentive compensation.

Net Operating Income

Whether or not we record increasing net operating income (“NOI”) in our same property portfolio typically depends upon our ability to garner higher rental revenues, whether from higher average occupancy, higher GAAP rents per rentable square foot or higher cost recovery income, that exceed any corresponding growth in operating expenses. Consolidated same property NOI was $2.9 million, or 2.1%, lower in the second quarter of 2025 as compared to 2024 due to a decrease of $2.0 million in same property revenues and an increase of $0.9 million in same property expenses. We expect same property NOI to be lower for the remainder of 2025 as compared to 2024 primarily due to lower anticipated average occupancy.

In addition to the effect of consolidated same property NOI, whether or not NOI increases typically depends upon whether the NOI from our acquired properties and development properties placed in service exceeds the NOI from property dispositions. NOI was $3.2 million, or 2.3%, lower in the second quarter of 2025 as compared to 2024 primarily due to lower consolidated same property NOI and lost NOI from property dispositions, partially offset by NOI from the acquisition of Advance Auto Parts Tower in Raleigh. We expect NOI to be lower for the remainder of 2025 as compared to 2024 for similar reasons.

Cash Flows

In calculating net cash related to operating activities, depreciation and amortization, which are non-cash expenses, are added back to net income. We have historically generated a positive amount of cash from operating activities. From period to period, cash flow from operations primarily depends upon changes in our net income, as discussed more fully below under “Results of Operations,” changes in receivables and payables and net additions or decreases in our overall portfolio.

Net cash related to investing activities generally relates to capitalized costs incurred for leasing and major building improvements and our acquisition, development, disposition and joint venture activity. During periods of significant net acquisition and/or development activity, our cash used in such investing activities will generally exceed cash provided by investing activities, which typically consists of cash received upon the sale of properties and distributions from our joint ventures.

Net cash related to financing activities generally relates to distributions, incurrence and repayment of debt, and issuances, repurchases or redemptions of Common Stock, Common Units and Preferred Stock. We use a significant amount of our cash to fund distributions. Whether or not we have increases in the outstanding balances of debt during a period depends generally upon the net effect of our acquisition, disposition, development and joint venture activity. We generally use our revolving credit facility for daily working capital purposes, which means that during any given period, in order to minimize interest expense, we may record significant repayments and borrowings under our revolving credit facility.

For a discussion regarding dividends and distributions, see “Liquidity and Capital Resources - Dividends and Distributions.”

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We continue to maintain a conservative and flexible balance sheet and believe we have ample liquidity to fund our operations and growth prospects. As of July 22, 2025, we had approximately $32 million of existing cash and $137.0 million drawn on our $750.0 million revolving credit facility, which is scheduled to mature in January 2028 (but which can be extended for two additional six-month periods at our option). As of June 30, 2025, our leverage ratio, as measured by the ratio of our mortgages and notes payable and outstanding preferred stock to the undepreciated book value of our assets, was 42.5%, and there were 110.0 million diluted shares of Common Stock outstanding.

Rental and other revenues are our principal source of funds to meet our short-term liquidity requirements. Other sources of funds for short-term liquidity needs include available working capital and borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Our short-term liquidity requirements primarily consist of operating expenses, interest and principal amortization on our debt, distributions and capital expenditures, including building improvement costs, tenant improvement costs and lease commissions. Building improvements are capital costs to maintain or enhance existing buildings not typically related to a specific customer. Tenant improvements are the costs required to customize space for our customers’ specific needs. We anticipate that our available cash and cash equivalents and cash provided by operating activities and planned financing activities, including borrowings under our revolving credit facility, will be adequate to meet our short-term liquidity requirements. We use our revolving credit facility for working capital purposes, the short-term funding of our development and acquisition activity and, in certain instances, the repayment of other debt. The continued ability to borrow under the revolving credit facility allows us to quickly capitalize on strategic opportunities at short-term interest rates.

We generally believe existing cash and rental and other revenues will continue to be sufficient to fund our short-term liquidity needs such as funding operating and general and administrative expenses, paying interest expense, maintaining our existing quarterly dividend and funding existing portfolio capital expenditures, including building improvement costs, tenant improvement costs and lease commissions.

Our long-term liquidity uses generally consist of the retirement or refinancing of debt upon maturity, funding of building improvements, new building developments (including our proportionate share of joint venture developments) and land infrastructure projects and funding acquisitions of buildings and development land (including our proportionate share of joint venture acquisitions). Additionally, we may, from time to time, retire outstanding equity and/or debt securities through redemptions, open market repurchases, privately negotiated acquisitions or otherwise.

We expect to meet our long-term liquidity needs through a combination of:

•cash flows from operating activities;

•issuance of debt securities by the Operating Partnership;

•issuance of secured debt;

•bank term loans;

•borrowings under our revolving credit facility;

•issuance of equity securities by the Company or the Operating Partnership; and

•the disposition of non-core assets.

We have no debt scheduled to mature prior to 2027, except for our $200.0 million unsecured bank term loan that is scheduled to mature in May 2026. We generally believe we will be able to satisfy future obligations with existing cash, borrowings under our revolving credit facility, new bank term loans, issuance of other unsecured debt, mortgage debt and/or proceeds from the sale of additional non-core assets.

Investment Activity

As noted above, a key tenet of our strategic plan is to continuously upgrade the quality of our office portfolio through acquisitions, dispositions and development. We generally seek to acquire and develop office buildings that improve the average quality of our overall portfolio and deliver consistent and sustainable value for our stockholders over the long-term. Whether or not an asset acquisition or new development results in higher per share net income or funds from operations (“FFO”) in any given period depends upon a number of factors, including whether the NOI for any such period exceeds the actual cost of capital used to finance the acquisition or development. Additionally, given the length of construction cycles, development projects are not placed in service until several years after commencement in some cases. Sales of non-core assets could result in lower per share net income or FFO in any given period in the event the return on the resulting use of proceeds does not exceed the capitalization rate on the sold properties.