India
is placing the groundwork in an attempt to make real estate investment trusts
tax-exempt, enabling trades on public exchanges, a move which may help unlock
as much as $20billion of listings.
Regulations
on taxation are to be amended, as announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on
10th July. The stock-market regulator is in preparations to allow
REITs to be traded on exchanges, as reported by Edelweiss Securities Ltd.
The
establishment of REITs will provide a new funding source to Indian developers who
have struggled to reduce debt, as well as give investors the ability to purchase
into the country’s property market. Property broker Cushman & Wakeman have
estimated assets which may qualify to be included in REITs could reach $20billion
by 2020. In the first three to five years, as much as $12billion may be raised.
