REITs Center

By Hiroshi Torii
Senior Analyst, Equity Research/REITs
SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

10 Sep 2021 is the 20th anniversary of the creation of the J-REIT market, which was born on 10 Sep 2001 with the TSE listing of Nippon Building Fund (8951, NBF) and Japan Real Estate (8952, JRE). Amid changing externals, the J-REIT market has passed through periods of stability, frenetic activity, and sluggishness, and has steadily grown in size while working to improve unresolved market issues. Total J-REIT market cap was just Y250bn (acquisition value Y320bn) at end-September 2001, but expanded to Y17.6tn (Y20.9tn) by end-August 2021.

Though the market has good and bad years in terms of performance, income gains (dividends) have built up steadily and the total return (incl dividends) over the 20 years from 10 Sep 2001 to end-August 2021 was +416%, much higher than the +166% for TOPIX. We think the size of J-REIT income gains (incl compound interest) deserves another look.

J-REITs play a crucial role as buyers of domestic real estate. The growth of the J-REIT market has not only revitalized the Japanese real estate market, but has also helped significantly improve market transparency by enhancing disclosure around property transactions and earnings. This has expanded the opportunities for a wide range of investors to access the total returns generated by J-REITs. We look for continued improvement of unresolved issues to unlock further market growth and higher profile.

In this report, we review various aspects of the J-REIT market over the past 20 years. We also look at the 20 biggest events impacting the J-REIT market over the past two decades, and rank the J-REITs based on their performance on several key metrics over the past 20 years. We also highlight issues that the J-REIT market needs to address in the next 10 years.

{module title=”J-REITS Turn 20″}

A collaboration between PwC and APREA, this report aims to provide an overview of the Indian REIT and InvIT market, and how various stakeholders can benefit by investing in these trusts. It also elaborates on regulations governing the structure of these instruments in India and compares REIT markets across major countries in the world.

Download the Report

REITs in 2022 appear well positioned to benefit from a sustained demand recovery, the inflation-hedging characteristics of real estate and attractive relative valuations.

Key takeaways:

• We believe a strengthening economy should provide a healthy backdrop for many property types.
• Real estate has historically performed well in inflationary environments despite potential interest rate increases.
• REITs remain attractively valued compared with equities, suggesting room to grow.

Strong fundamentals supporting REITs

The global economic rebound of 2021, fueled by fiscal and monetary stimulus, economic reopenings and strong consumer spending, should provide a solid foundation for global real estate securities in 2022.

That said, supply-chain constraints and wage increases could temper growth and keep upward pressure on inflation, leading to rising interest rates. But while sharp increases in interest rates may unsettle markets in the near term, the direction of the economy and job growth tend to have a greater impact on REIT returns than rising rates.

In fact, an expanding economy typically drives stronger demand, which often leads to higher occupancy levels, giving landlords greater negotiating leverage to raise rents. Rising rents, in turn, have the potential to generate higher property cash flows, distributions and property values.

This report was originally published in https://www.cohenandsteers.com/insights/read/reits-forces-aligned-for-growth-in-2022

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) are conceptually like mutual funds in that funds are raised (backed by a sponsor) from institutional and retail investors which is then invested in infrastructure or real estate projects. The income earned from such projects is periodically distributed (at least 90% of net distributable cash flows (NDCF)) to unitholders. However, unlike mutual funds, they also have characteristics of a business enterprise considering they also raise debt and through a Trustee and an Investment Manager, are actively involved in projects to maximize returns to unitholders.

The rising emergence and popularity of REITs/InvITs in India is a welcome development for capital thirsty sectors, e.g., infrastructure (roads and highways, ports, railways, etc.), power, real estate, etc. With a view to increasing private participation supported by favorable government policies (e.g., enabling investment by foreign portfolio investors) and long- term investment outlook, many marquee investors including sovereign and pension funds are continuing to raise their stakes in such assets. Investors benefit from generating regular cash distributions, stable yield and an opportunity for sponsor(s) to expand their asset base.

Following two decades of success and growth in some of its markets, what can we expect for Asia-Pacific REITs in the 2020s?

 Following two decades of success and growth in some of its markets, what can we expect for Asia-Pacific REITs in the 2020s?

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As the REIT regime has been expanding globally, corporate governance practices in emerging REIT markets have become a major concern for domestic and international investors alike. Idiosyncrasies stemming from the ownership models applied in Asian economies and the fact Asian REITs are often externally managed “captive entities” make issues pertaining to corporate governance of the listed real estate sector in Asia all the more important. To address these issues, the paper introduces an original framework that can be used to estimate the quality of corporate governance among externally managed Asian REITs. As a pilot study, the framework is applied to define a corporate governance index of REITs listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (S-REITs). The index called R-Index enables the ranking of S-REITs’ corporate governance practices. It is then used to examine the relationship between corporate governance and the performance of S-REITs. The empirical tests based on several performance-related metrics provide evidence supporting a positive correlation between corporate governance practices identified in the R-Index and stock performances. However, we find no positive correlation with operating performance proxied by accounting measures. In other words, S-REITs with higher corporate governance tend to register better risk-adjusted returns but do not outperform operationally. To test for market efficiency, the study shows that S-REITs with the best corporate governance practices also have less information asymmetry.

Conducive global developments placed financial markets on a risk-on mode in the final month of 2020. The prospect of widely available coronavirus vaccines, the US bipartisan agreement on fiscal stimulus, and the EU-UK post-Brexit trade agreement’s conclusion provided the necessary fillip to sentiment, sustaining momentum for real estate stocks to conclude on a positive note.
However, for the whole of 2020, real estate stocks continued to lag the wider equity markets, which have been supported by tech and pharma counters. Property cycles will eventually chart the sector’s own way out of the crisis, which although historically it lags an economic recovery, will be longer-lived, sustained by the region’s enduring structural fundamentals.

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On 30th April 2020, The National Development and Reform Commission and The Securities Regulatory Commission jointly released the “Regulations regarding the Launch of China Infrastructure Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs)”. This announcement marks the beginning of C-REITs in the Chinese market.

Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) has been actively supporting the launch of REITs in China. APREA offers views and experience from International REITs markets to help craft a unique China REIT regulatory framework. In addition, APREA has been promoting REITs knowledge globally to increase awareness of REITs potential.

With this regard, APREA has invited key players in the REITs industry to share their thoughts on C-REITs potential. The China REITs Handbook” is an educational manual on China’s REITs, to allow the public, industry personnel and investors to better understand China’s REITs. Asia Pacific Real Estate Association together with King & Wood Mallesons (China), KPMG (China), Cushman & Wakefield (China), and Guanghua School of Management, Peking University have jointly produced this manual.

On 30th April 2020, The National Development and Reform Commission and The Securities Regulatory Commission jointly released the “Regulations regarding the Launch of China Infrastructure Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs)”. This announcement marks the beginning of C-REITs in the Chinese market.

Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) has been actively supporting the launch of REITs in China. APREA offers views and experience from International REITs markets to help craft a unique China REIT regulatory framework. In addition, APREA has been promoting REITs knowledge globally to increase awareness of REITs potential.

With this regard, APREA has invited key players in the REITs industry to share their thoughts on C-REITs potential. The China REITs Handbook” is an educational manual on China’s REITs, to allow the public, industry personnel and investors to better understand China’s REITs. Asia Pacific Real Estate Association together with King & Wood Mallesons (China), KPMG (China), Cushman & Wakefield (China), and Guanghua School of Management, Peking University have jointly produced this manual.

On 11th November, APREA will be conducting an online Webinar for our global audience. All authors who contributed to the publication will be featured at the event to share more in-depth content with the audience. In addition, APREA has invited some REIT professionals to join the panel discussions to understand their views on the prospects of REITs in the Chinese market.

Join us today to learn more about Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) in China!

To obtain the latest English publication, please kindly contact:
Allan Zhang Wenliang
APREA China Chapter
Email：allan.zhang@aprea.asia
Phone：+86 131 2286 5700（WeChat）

随着今年4月30日国家发改委和证监会联合发布的《关于推进基础设施领域不动产投资信托基金（REITs）试点相关工作》的通知，标志着中国公募REITs新的起航。

亚太房地产协会（APREA）也在积极协助推动中国REITs的发展，为中国提供我们国际REITs先进经验，以协助建立即具中国特色又具国际竞争力的REITs制度而努力。同时，协会也在积极参与REITs的教育和普及，让更多人认识REITs。

对此，协会有幸邀请到国内众多知名REITs专家和学者一同撰写《中国REITs手册》，此手册为一个持续更新的普及中国REITs的教育型手册，为让大众、行业人员及投资者更好地理解中国REITs。本手册由亚太房地产协会（APREA）、北京大学光华管理学院、金杜律师事务所（中国）、毕马威（中国）、戴德梁行（中国）的专家、学者共同完成。

随着今年4月30日国家发改委和证监会联合发布的《关于推进基础设施领域不动产投资信托基金（REITs）试点相关工作》的通知，标志着中国公募REITs新的起航。

亚太房地产协会（APREA）也在积极协助推动中国REITs的发展，为中国提供我们国际REITs先进经验，以协助建立即具中国特色又具国际竞争力的REITs制度而努力。同时，协会也在积极参与REITs的教育和普及，让更多人认识REITs。

对此，协会有幸邀请到国内众多知名REITs专家和学者一同撰写《中国REITs手册》，此手册为一个持续更新的普及中国REITs的教育型手册，为让大众、行业人员及投资者更好地理解中国REITs。本手册由亚太房地产协会（APREA）、北京大学光华管理学院、金杜律师事务所（中国）、毕马威（中国）、戴德梁行（中国）的专家、学者共同完成。

想获取完整的中文电子版手册吗?

请联系：

张文良

副总裁、中国区负责人

亚太房地产协会（APREA）

邮件：allan.zhang@aprea.asia

电话：+86 131 2286 5700（微信）

COVID-19 impacts are being felt across the REIT space. However, sectors will be impacted differently by both COVID-19 itself and the behaviors and measures that will be taken to address the outbreak. While at the time of this writing, REITs are likely oversold, pricing in the REIT market is diverging between property types, which could point to the future direction of private market values.