Five Best- and Least-Performing Singapore REITs in 2015

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 REITs and six stapled trusts, which have a combined market capitalisation of S$61.8 billion, and average a dividend yield of 7.2%. This compares with an average dividend yield of 4.0% for the MSCI World Real Estate Investment Trust Index, which has 68 constituents and a combined market capitalisation of US$827.4 billion.

The 34 trusts averaged a negative total return of 2.0% over the 2015 calendar year, which brought their three-year annualised total return to 2.3%. This compares with 12-month and three-year annualised total returns of 10.6% and 14.2% respectively in Singapore dollar terms for the MSCI World REIT Index.

The five best performers among the 34 Singapore-listed trusts in 2015 were: Saizen REIT (+36.1%), Ascendas Hospitality Trust (+17.5%), Fortune REIT (+14.8%), Mapletree Industrial Trust (+9.7%) and Keppel DC REIT (+7.6%). The five averaged a total return of 17.1% over the calendar year.

The five least-performing trusts in 2015 were: Keppel REIT (-20.0%), Capitaland Commercial Trust (-18.9%), CDL Hospitality Trusts (-18.9%), Sabana Shariah Compliant Industrial REIT (-17.3%) and Suntec REIT (-16.4%). The five averaged a total negative return of 18.3% over the past year.

The table below details the 34 trusts and is sorted by market capitalisation. Note that clicking on a stock name will direct you to its profile page on SGX StockFacts.

Source: SGX, Bloomberg & SGX StockFacts (data as of 4 January 2016)

*Fortune REIT denoted in HKD

Note Keppel DC REIT listed on 12 Dec 2014, dividend frequency takes into account sole distribution in July 2015