MREITs take a real beating

Downtrend: At yesterday’s close, the fall of MREITs widened considerably year to date with CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust (CMMT) seeing a 40.2 decline, diversified Sunway REIT (13.09), PavREIT (9.85), AxisREIT (16.77) and IGB REIT (12.98).

Opinion is divided over the attractiveness of Malaysian real estate investment trusts (MREITs) even after the price of many of them had taken a pummelling.

But are the hefty yields that some of these REITs offer attractive enough for investors to bite in an environment of rising interest rates and sluggish retail performance?