Yep, if you not SG tax resident, GST is not applicable, so.. GST is taxed on the brokerage and not on the shares.

GST (on brokerage) = 0%
Tax on dividend received = 0%
Capital gain tax = 0%

Also no stamp duty for Singapore stock purchases...

For properties, there is a lot of taxes and restrictions for non-resident to purchase properties...

Purchase Stamp Duty
First SGD 180,000 - 1%
Next SGD 180,000 - 2%
Remainder - 3%
PLUS Additional 10% on the total purchase price... 

Selling Stamp Duty
1st Year = 16%
2nd year=12%
3rd Year = 8%
4th Year = 4%

Buy also kena tax, sell also kena tax...  Max Loan = 60% of house value... SG properties gonna free fall soon... 

But SG REIT is exempted from all above.. 

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Added on January 2, 2012, 2:05 pm

Remember S-REIT have high yield due to reasons, investors are not dumb. 

Most S-Reit have properties which have limited land leases, usually between 20-90 years. Usually the shorter land lease period have higher yields. once a company reaches it's end of lease, they will have to re-new (re-buy using cash/debt/rights) the lease for another 30 years or so or sell off the property cheaper (incur losses).

So these properties are self depreciating, for example a company have a 30 years lease left, the total depreciation will be about 3.33% and the property asset value in calculated to reflect that.  Hence a property having a 'normal' yield of 6%, it will be discounted to 9.33%, to compensate for the 3.33% re-investment required to extend the lease in the future.

Only the land belongs to the government and not the building. But land being the most expensive item in Singapore, thus re-buying the land in the future (30 years) it might cost you more than your current purchase price (land &building). 

Look where their properties are located first    S-Reits with properties in Indonesia tend to command higher yields, cause Indonesia is considered riskier than Singapore.  And check the history of the Reits and their sponsors. Some have weak or small sponsor, or patchy history. Singapore Reits/stocks tend to behave in a more "logical" manner compared to Bursa.

private placement is usually at discount price to market price, so it's actually worse for shareholders than RI. With RI, at least every shareholder has the chance to neutralize the dilution if they invest more by subscribing to all RI offered.
However, as long as the diluted % is less or equal to the % of the new income by newly injected assets per year, it's not a bad idea for long term investor as it just required 1 year for break even. 

With SCB online I only trade SGX, but you can trade HK, most major European countries and US markets with it. Thus useful to for checking real time prices of certain counters there. I think it would be less taxing to do research on just one or two exchanges, but you may have more capacity than I. In fact I'd rather just trade stocks on the KLSE and nothing else, but just don't want my money sitting pretty in SG FDs which pays less than 1% /annum.

You can chose either TAC or a token device, both have pros and cons. You do not need a SG number. A Malaysian mobile works just as well.

Hope that answers your questions.

Though this thread is about REITs, and my original purpose was to buy just SG reits with SCB online, but today my SGX portfolio has less than 50% reits. I have around 30 counters and log in once a day to place my orders. I use TA indicators (RSI, stocRSI and MACD) to help me enter and exit a position. I must say than since starting SCB online about a month ago, I've earned (counting realised gains only) many times what SG FDs would have earned me in a year.

i got charged about rm$80 by CIMB Cross border trading for singapore shares

I am having the financial statements of Starhill REIT. Please may I know which line are you referring to.

I do know that ARREIT's earning for 2011 was boosted by 'unrealized gain from revaluation of properties', which I assume is one-off.

I can't find solid information so I may be wrong. But Stareit's financial reports always confuse me because right now most of their asset value is actually in their Singapore REIT related company.

Anyway, cherroy mentioned a while back that Stareit's expected DPU after all their property portfolio adjustments is 6.9 sen. I see that the MREIT blog simply based their extremely high yield by taking 4.0112 DPU for a half year and doubling it.

Chong Reit Sifu,
Chicken Run jor! Nvm... got arreit ! 

hm.. yesterday ARREIT closed 0.925
today ARREIT jumped to a high of 0.935 before settling back at 0.930
Anyone sniffed anything funny / interesting going on?
Just curious since no "printed" news that i've read - danke danke

Note:
Invested party here (bought during the drop $0.900+/- a few times)

If, its share price won't go down more than that special repayment. Good luck. 

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' equity

Loans are part of liabilities, so gearing ratio can't be more than 100%, right 

No reit can have more than 50% gearing based on its total net asset , this is stated in the reit regulation.

So more divvy for us  Long term planning moppy gor. 
Got the offer price for IGBReit already? 

imo at current price better buy from IPO not worth it already ..... IPO cannot get also can buy upon first day listing ......

Bro sky,

I heard before this theory of a successful ceo/businessman when go polishing his shoes in the street, the polisher was talking about the stock that he owns. So this he made a clever decision to dispose his stake of the company and voila the share comes tumbling down. 

IBs?
Try HLeBroking, ECM Libra and OSK.

Recommendations?
Read http://reitdata.com/ + other websites and books on REITs + investing in general.
hunt for more data and make up your own mind.
Sorry ar - i worry about recommending coz i'm not U, with different wants, stress, risk appetite, goals for the investments.

Personally, i'm holding:
a. AIMSAMPI REIT  (Singapore Industrial)
b. SABANA REIT (Singapore Industrial)
c. LIPPO MALLS (Indonesia Retail)
d. FIRST REIT (Indonesia hospital)
e. SAIZEN REIT (Japan residential)

eh? there's such a REIT name or type ar?