Besides of Equities, Bond, Property, Fix Deposit, Hedge Fund, Unit Trust Fund and etc. A new asset class investment option has emerged with potential fair return of investment in Malaysia. REIT – Also known as Real Estate Investment Trust. With the concept like Unit Trust, by gather pool of money from all sizes of investors. REIT based companies will invest, manage and distribute rental as dividend back to the investors. It is also being trade in Bursa Kuala Lumpur with ease of buy and sell back like a normal equity.
REIT is not new to the world, in many other developed countries, REIT has been developed for decades and with steady fix income as oppose to fix deposit as an alternative. It targets long term investor with moderate risk such as insurance companies, pension funds, unit trust funds and even individual investor. As many investors may not be able to invest in a huge property portfolio, REIT gain strength from pool of funds gathered and invest into high profile and high value properties for better return.
REIT returns averagely in develop market is around 3-5% depending on its individual performance. However, REIT in Malaysia is very attractive because as we are in a so-called last phase of developing nation before developed. Our nation’s property’s values are still a gap behind many developed countries in Asia. This emerge as an opportunity with an average attractive yields between 6-8% which is higher then other major developed countries.
Especially when REITs are in the infant stage in Malaysia, most REIT managers are with option and plan to growth their property portfolio to trade or manage rental in order to achieve even a better yield for investor.
As our nation property’s value is undervalued for decades, there will be a high potential of asset revaluation will bring capital growth to the investor. Typical a potential of upside will be between 20-30% around a five (5) years period. In conjunction with the government effort to liberalize and boost property asset values in Malaysia.
An example of an early REITs launched in 2006 – STAREIT. It has till date performed a 7% dividend yield based on the NTAB of 97 sen. If compare to Fix Deposit of 3-4% and even with government based senior citizen bond that offer 5.5%. STAREIT becomes much attractive and excluding the potential of its asset revaluation that includes all its prime location properties located at Bintang Walk, Kuala Lumpur.
REIT is not just having the existing property to rent out, manage and collect rental. A high performance REIT is like your property fund manager. They will develop new opportunities, acquire more properties into their portfolio and to some countries, jointly develop property projects. This will provide even a higher potential return compare to those low to moderate risk investment instruments.
Thus, if you are trying to find a good investment tool for your long term retirement plan. Do consider REIT in Malaysia within the next few years. REIT will be attractive with a fair risk to be tolerated in compare to Fix Deposit. As equities are high risk to some extend, bonds are relatively moderate return but without asset revaluation opportunity, investing in property directly will require high investment fund and also you have to manage it yourself. REIT will be a good choice as alternative asset class for investment.
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