How do you REIT??

I am a big fan of REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). If you are careful and selective, there are generally quite a few for you to pick in SGX.

Those listed in KL are not so attractive to me. This is my personal prejudice because I think regulatory oversight in the real estate business is questionable with all the corruption going on in the country. Here I speak in general terms and nothing specific.

I am more confident in REITs listed in SGX and the number and variety of REITs are also more interesting. Even though they are listed in SGX, the assets held under these REITs are not necessarily all Singaporean assets. You can actually access to properties in Indonesia, Japan, China, and Australia on top of those in Singapore.

So it is actually not so difficult to select 10 REITs to spread your money.

I am not so hard working (remember, I'm retired so I have earned the right to be a bit lazy) to compose a long article on REITs. Instead I point you to to this Blog. click here. This article explains a little bit on how to assess the REITs that you are looking at.

"Investment Moats" is written by a Singaporean. I think his profession is Engineering but in his private time spends a lot of time writing on financial and investment topics.

I personally don't care too much about his other work on investment philosophy and personal finance but he does pretty good work on REITs.

He maintains a REITs tracker here. You can do a quick look every now and then.

My favorite REIT is Lippo Mall REIT which I've owned for a few years now. The key is you don't just own it. You trade it as well. The trading range is quite decent between S$0.29 to S$0.42. Bought a lot at S$0.30 earlier this year and took profit at $0.39.

That's 30% trading profit plus almost 9% dividend collected. Not too bad. I still have some which I've bought at S$0.42, those still get dividend return (based on acquisition cost) of 7.6%.

I won't say what other REITs I own or have my eyes on. Hahaha.