The Singapore skyline, with a view of major properties held by REITs. (Photo: REITsWeek)

REITs listed in Asia were least affected by the sell-down witnessed by property stocks worldwide in September 2022.

This is according to data provided by Global Property Research (GPR) in its most recent market update report.

The report centres around the organisation's proprietary GPR250 Index, which tracks the 250 most liquid listed property securities worldwide.

A subset of this is the GPR250 REIT index, which covers REITs and companies that adopt a REIT-like structure globally.

Local returns of REITs worldwide as tracked in the GPR250 REIT Index.

In terms of unit price, Asia-listed REITs were down 5.5% month-on-month, which represents a tepid decline when compared to the average fall of 11.2% experienced by REITs listed worldwide.

This was evidently bolstered by the performance of Japan-listed REITs, which fell by just 4.3% month-on-month on assurances from the Bank of Japan to maintain a low interest rate environment.

Elsewhere across Asia, the unit price of REITs have fallen between 5.5% and 10.9% as central banks mirror rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

Most affected by the sell-down were REITs listed in Europe, which fell by 16.7% month-on-month.

Singapore REITs declined by 6.7% month-on-month, plausibly due to the large volumes of institutional trades throughout the month.

Related: Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sees SGD13.2 million rout in institutional funds

By Ridzwan Rahmat

Ridzwan has been analysing REITs and business trusts since 2008, and personally manages a portfolio comprising mainly of SGX-listed REITs. He founded REITsWeek in 2013.