, Columnist
Singapore Needs Reforms to Revive Its REITs
Activist investors are agitating to balance a playing field tilted against them. Regulators must also do their bit.
Ball in the regulators’ court.
Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
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The hottest part of Singapore’s otherwise humdrum stock market used to be institutional landlords. Now the city’s real estate investment trusts are begging for a revival in investor interest — and some much-needed reform.
In the decade bookended by the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis and the onset of Covid-19, Singapore REITs had outperformed the Straits Times Index. No longer. While the benchmark gauge hasn’t done much since hitting its highest in nearly four years in April 2022, property trusts have simply fallen off a cliff.