IMHO REITs are a good alternative to blue chips and unit trust investing, slow and steady but with even better yields.

Bargain for would-be unitholders, heartache for current unitholders who wanted to cash out anytime soon.

REIT is a very good alternative to FD. But I rekomen anyone to maintain AT LEAST an FD equivalent to 1 month's net salary as 'emergency fund'. The rest of your surplus cash you don't intend to invest for long-term can park in REIT to eearn superior yields.

I would say yes. If you look at others, Hektar purely on suburban retail, while UOA on office properties. Axis quite diversified. And the number of properties they have also quite big compared to the others, thus its risks are quite distributed. Hektar only have 3 properties, imagine if something were to happen to either 1, 33.33% (assuming equal contribution from each mall) of its income gone.

Also, generally REITs are priced around their yields. Axis is about 7%++, while Hektar and UOA about 8%++. So, the difference is not really that big in that sense.

Btw, only these 3 REITs are within my coverage, so I'm only comparing among them.

Islamic REIT:

Haram activities (vice, alcohol, entertainment, conventional banking, among others) are not allowed in the properties in their portfolio, or if I'm not mistaken there's a limit i.e. not totally prohibited. Can any muslims here advise?

2ndly, their financing must be by syariah-compliant instruments/banking.