What are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)?
Simply speaking, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are mutual funds that invest in real estate instead of stocks or debt securities. They raise money through stock exchanges, and are listed on the stock exchanges.
Like mutual funds, they collect small amounts of money from common investors, pool it, and use it to invest in real estate properties.
REITs are very popular both among retail and institutional investors around the world. They are also known as Real Estate Mutual Funds (REMFs) in some marketsBenefits of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Low investment
You need to invest only a fraction of the money needed to buy a property on your own, but would still be able to participate in the rally in the real estate market!
Diversification of risk
If you invest on your own, you can buy say one or two properties, whereas a REIT invests in many properties using the pooled money. Thus, you are able to spread your risk between various properties and projects. Imagine owning a share in apartments in Mumbai and Delhi, and in some posh malls in Gurgaon and Bangalore at the same time!
Liquidity and transparency
When REITs become active participants of the real estate market, they would bring the much needed transparency to it. Since they would need to report all transactions, this would result in a reduction of cash transactions in the real estate market. They would also make the property market more liquid.
Exit route for Private Equity investors
Recently, we have seen a lot of investment in various real estate projects by Private Equity investors (Estimate for year 2007 is Rs. 25,000 Crores). REITs would be large buyers who can buy properties from Private Equity investors, thus giving them an attractive exit route. This would encourage Private Equity investors to invest even more in the real estate market, which can further strengthen the market.
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