My ex-colleague at the Motley Fool Singapore, Ser Jing, once wrote that “The next best thing from being a property owner yourself, is to own real estate investment trusts, or REITs”.
It turns out that Ser Jing is in good company with that sentiment.
Author Bobby Jayaraman, in his book “Building Wealth Through REITs”, shared that there are a few advantages to owning REIT shares.
Being a shareholder of a REIT gives you partial ownership of the real estate that it owns.
Having partial ownership also entitles you to the dividend distribution which typically happens every quarter.
As per the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), REITs are mandated to distribute at least 90% of their profits as dividends in order to enjoy tax transparency.
The advantages of REITs include access to diversified properties, better liquidity, and the relatively low capital outlay to own pieces of property.
However, does this mean that...