Fractional Ownership & REITs: Real Estate Investment Avenues

“Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual’s cash flow and wealth.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Pre-Leased Real Estate has been the most preferred and attractive investment avenue owing to the regular passive rental income and capital appreciation. However, it has a very high entry and exit barrier in terms of ticket size and liquidity. Fractional Ownership and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) address these barriers, thus making it an ideal investment option.

REITs are structured on similar lines of mutual funds. They are companies that own, finance, or operate revenue-generating properties and can be traded on the stock exchange. It provides investors, retail or institutional, the opportunity to invest in large real estate projects while enabling them to earn dividends with long term capital appreciation. Fractional real estate investment is a method where multiple people come together to buy shares of a property. Fractional Ownership is a percentage ownership in a high-value asset.

Indian market witnessed two successful REIT listing totalling Rs 9,250 cr in recent times of Embassy Office Parks and Mindspace REIT. Blackstone and Brookfield also announced two significant deals in Indian real estate amid the pandemic, amounting to around Rs 25,000 cr, acquiring office parks from Prestige and RMZ respectively. The recent Brookfield REIT listing was oversubscribed by a whopping eight times. This is a testimony of the vibrancy and long-term prospect of this sector.