In S’pore, REITs becoming more important than ever

SINGAPORE: Singapore is becoming a hub for the property-management industry: It has more foreign real estate investment trusts (REITs) than anywhere else in the world, and the companies’ importance on the nation’s benchmark equity index is the highest it’s ever been.

Since the city-state saw the first share sale of a REIT in 2002, it has pocketed 41 initial public offerings of such firms – including seven foreign-currency-denominated ones. In comparison, Hong Kong, the world’s top IPO venue last year, has just had 11 since then, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.