Reit boom brings both pain and gain

REAL estate investment trusts (Reits) may be a hit with investors, but are often painted less positively by their critics.

S-Reits have been blamed for causing rents to spike and in turn stoking inflation, especially for retail and industrial properties. There is also the issue of bigger Reit players crowding out smaller developers.

Corporate governance watchers have also taken issue with Reits. One prominent concern is that managers may buy low-quality assets or overpay just to increase its portfolio size and collect higher fees. There are also questions about the quality of foreign assets being listed in Singapore, especially if they come from a jurisdiction with its own Reit regime.

While some of these concerns are valid, industry players The Business Times spoke to said that not everything can be blamed o…