THE total value of transactions linked to real estate investment trusts (REITS) this year was about RM2 billion, the bulk of which involved office assets, followed by industrial assets. In contrast, the total value in 2019 was just shy of RM300 million.
Not surprisingly, deals involving hospitality and retail assets the two sectors badly hit by Covid-19 were lacking.
“Investors are wary about market conditions and the impact of Covid-19 on offices, so the major office deals [this year] were related-party acquisitions by REITs, where the buyer has the comfort of knowing the asset and all the tenants intimately,” says Nabeel Hussain, Savills Malaysia’s deputy managing director and head of capital markets, when asked what he thought was the common theme among transactions by REIT players this year.