OREANDA-NEWS. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) raise capital to purchase primarily real estate assets, usually with a view to generating income for unit holders of the fund. It allows individual investors to access real property assets, and share the benefits and risks of owning a portfolio of properties, which typically distribute income at regular intervals.

SGX lists 28 Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and six stapled trusts, which have a combined market capitalisation of S$61.2 billion. This represents approximately 8% of the total market capitalisation on SGX. Of the 34 REITs, 19 have assets located in the region. Ascott Residence Trust is the most internationalised REIT, with properties across 14 countries worldwide. Its portfolio includes properties in Australia, Germany, China, Japan, UK and the US.

In the year thus far, these 34 trusts have averaged a 2.4% decline in total return, taking their average three-year total return to 12.6%. They currently trade at an average price-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 11.4 and 0.9 respectively, and maintain an indicative dividend yield of 7.2%.

The five best performers in the year thus far were Saizen REIT, Fortune REIT, Keppel DC REIT, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Soilbuild Business Space REIT. Together, these five REITs averaged a year-to-date total return of 15.6%, with the median return at 11.3%.

FTSE ST REIT Index

The FTSE ST REIT Index includes 33 constituents and maintains a current dividend yield of 6.7%. This is higher than the five year month average which has been 5.6%. As shown in the table below, yields have varied from 7.9% in November 2011 to 4.3% in April 2013. Please note the Index includes relevant securities that pass screening vets and are a part of a the Industry Classification Benchmark REIT Sector.