One of the better performing category on the Singapore stock market this year has been Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) as the hunt for a higher yield has seen many investors buying into them.
But not all REITS have performed the same.
Selecting a good REIT does require doing a bit of homework. DIY investors would find this REIT site pretty useful as it is updated with all the relevant data and information.
Timing is of course another issue and you would want to be careful not to buy into a REIT that is overvalued. As of now, experts are split over how long the REIT rally can last.
And of course there is the long standing debate about whether the interests of the REITs manager are actually aligned with the unit holders and their fee structure. I had wrote about this in my earlier article about whether Singapore REITs were a good investment.
Because of the somewhat common capital raising exercises (through rights issues), it is imperative that an investor who invests into REITs is a person who reads all the circulars that are sent to him. You would not want to miss a rights issue exercise and get your shares diluted.
I would probably go further and comment that anyone who invests into any kind of stocks should do the same.
If not, he or she would be better off investing into a collective investment scheme such as an ETF or unit trust