Business Times Just Published that REITs are Good Investments Well It is True but No One Dares to Say....

Business Times (Singapore) has published an opinion piece that choosing REITs over an investment home may be better

*Article requires subscription so might be hard to read in full.

Well as I had covered investing in REITs, REIT give much better returns than owning a property. I have done the maths here

In short, choosing the right REIT will yield good returns. In fact for my favourite REIT (United Hampshire US REIT), without leverage it is giving 8% dividend yield and on equity.

A Challenge to A Property Agent

I am willing to challenge an agent out there based on a condo project which has: 

(i) more than 100 residential units in the project, 

(ii) pricing based on latest URA pricing for condo sold (for capital gains), 

(iii) rental income based on URA rental for a transaction in the condo project; and deducting (a) annual IRAS non owner occupied property tax rate from effective 1 Jan 2025 based on annual value=Rental multiply 12 months; (b) 0.5 months agent commission annually and (c) loan expense of 4% annual interest on the 50% leverage) based on a 50% cash/50% leverage model for the condo. 

To give any property agent the advantage, I will not use a 50% cash/50% leverage model for Unitedhampshire US REIT (Phillips Securities provide loan of only 4.5% interest) but I am confident with this model, I will trash any property agent, hence I will make it nice and peg it to a 100% cash only model for buying United Hampshire US REIT (over a 5 year period), where UnitedHampshire US REIT purchased share price is 45.5 US cents based on today's pricing. Returns for Utdhampshire US REIT will be based on any capital gains + dividend over 05 years.

Time period: Ends on 31 Dec 2029

I am quite confident my pick of the REIT will surpass the returns of Singapore condo property