Europe’s office market faces the toughest conditions since the financial crisis, experts have warned, as rising interest rates and a surge in building costs threaten to choke off its recovery from the pandemic.

Higher interest rates and a broader tightening in financial conditions have driven the cost for office owners of servicing their debt above the rental income they receive for the first time since 2007, according to an analysis by Bank of America.

That is already cooling investment into the sector and could cause distress for highly leveraged office companies.

Rising base rates have added to office owners’ debt servicing costs. But that is merely the tip of the iceberg, according to Marc Mozzi, a real estate analyst at BofA.

“When people are talking about interest rates, that represents only about a quarter of the cost of borrowing for European real estate companies. The credit spread is the hidden part of the iceberg,” said Mozzi, referring to a measure of how much more a company has to pay to borrow compared with a sovereign issuer.



Over the past 12 months, credit spreads have doubled for UK-listed real estate companies and almost tripled for European groups, calculations from BofA show, indicating that bond investors are increasingly anxious about the companies’ creditworthiness.

The deteriorating outlook comes after the Bank of England earlier this month delivered the biggest rise in its key interest rate in more than a quarter of a century, as it steps up the fight against inflation.

The office market had a buoyant start to the year but has sunk since. In London, the value of deals completed in the first quarter of the year was 105 per cent above the 10-year average; but in the second quarter it was 27 per cent below that level, according to Mark Ridley, boss of estate agency Savills.

Executives say the challenge could get tougher when buyers have to refinance the debt they used to buy buildings.

“Look at the financial crisis and what happened: the pinch points were the refinancing moments, that’s where the squeeze can come,” said Adam Goldin, head of the UK business for CC Land, the Chinese developer that owns London’s Leadenhall Building, known as the “Cheesegrater” skyscraper.

“If you simply don’t have the money to refinance then you don’t have the money . . . There are plenty of organisations out there, [such as] funds that are closed-ended and can’t put more money in, so their one direction is to sell. We will then find out how much capital is there to buy,” he added.



A recent survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a leading body for the property industry, found that roughly half of the estate agents, surveyors and consultants from across Europe and the US who responded “view the market as having slipped into the downturn phase of the property cycle”.

Office landlords are also contending with a jump in the cost of building materials, the persistence of hybrid working and the additional costs required to meet environmental regulations.

Nevertheless, they point out that the level of leverage in the sector today is far lower than it was before the financial crisis, and that other investors and buyers will step in once prices for offices fall further.

But Mozzi is sceptical. “Why would anyone buy something that returns less than they are paying for it?” he said.

880 words
19 August 2022
Business Times Singapore
STBT
English
© 2022 SPH Media Limited



PURPOSE-BUILT student accommodation (PBSA) is gaining traction as a resilient asset class among property players.

There are currently no pure-play PBSA property groups and real estate investment trusts (Reits) listed in Singapore. But the strength of this sub-sector in the latest earnings season for the period ended June suggests this may soon change.

For example, hospitality player Ascott Residence Trust (ART), a stapled group comprising Ascott Reit and Ascott Business Trust, posted a 45 per cent increase in revenue for the first half ended June to S$267.4 million, and a 44 per cent rise in gross profit to S$118.2 million.

This was partially attributed to contributions from new properties, including the first full half-year of income contribution from 5 PBSA properties in the US, acquired in the second half of 2021.

ART said its PBSA properties in the US registered an average occupancy of over 95 per cent in H1, with an expected rent growth of close to 8 per cent year on year.

The service residence-focused Reit made its maiden foray into the PBSA space last year, and has since been steadily adding more such assets under its belt.

Apart from the US, ART also completed the acquisition of its first student accommodation property in Japan in March.

This week, the Singapore-listed real estate investment trust (S-Reit) announced the proposed acquisition of 9 properties from sponsor The Ascott Limited for S$318.3 million.

This includes the proposed acquisition of an additional 45 per cent stake in Standard at Columbia – a student accommodation asset in South Carolina currently being built and slated for completion in Q2 2023.

The latest acquisitions will bring ART's longer-stay assets – comprising rental housing and student accommodation – to about 19 per cent of its total portfolio value. The managers target for this longer-stay segment to make up 25-30 per cent of ART's portfolio in the medium term.

The segment accounted for about 20 per cent of H1 gross profit.

Meanwhile, specialised accommodation assets player Centurion Corp, which derived a quarter of its H1 revenue from its PBSA properties in the UK, Australia, the US and South Korea, reported a 43 per cent jump in PBSA revenue for the first half to S$22.5 million.

Earnings from its core business operations – excluding fair-valuation gains and deferred tax relating to fair valuation – were up 42 per cent to S$29 million, as total group revenue rose 40 per cent to S$90.5 million in H1.

Centurion said the improvement in PBSA results was largely due to higher bookings and financial occupancies at its PBSA assets, led by the lifting of travel restrictions and a return of international students.

Far East Orchard, another real estate group with exposure to the PBSA sector, also posted a commendable set of results in the latest period.

The group reversed into the black with earnings of S$8 million for the H1 ended June, as revenue rose 15.9 per cent to S$63.7 million.

The increase was partially attributed to higher revenue from its PBSA segment, on the back of a higher occupancy rate of 85 per cent for the academic year that started in September 2021.

In June, the group announced a joint venture to acquire a plot of land in Bristol in the UK to develop a PBSA asset with at least 690 beds – marking its 4th investment in the city.

The defensive, cash-yielding nature of PBSA properties has drawn plenty of interest from the big players.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC has been scooping up PBSA assets, including a joint venture with Greystar Real Estate Partners in May to acquire Student Roost, the 3rd-largest PBSA provider in the UK.

Temasek-linked Mapletree Investments had also been evaluating various options to monetise its portfolio of student accommodation assets, with rumours swirling over a potential US$1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of a student housing Reit this year.

A Reit focusing on PBSA properties could be welcomed globally, due to its short supply despite the perceived resilience.

The US this year lost its last publicly traded student housing Reit, with the acquisition of American Campus Communities by Blackstone.

US-listed EdR was acquired by Greystar in 2018, and Campus Crest was snapped up by Harrison Street in 2015.

As far as student accommodation Reits go, London Stock Exchange-listed Unite Group and Empiric Student Property are holding the fort globally.

Unite Group and Empiric Student Property have performed well so far this year, with annualised total returns of 8.3 per cent and 29.1 per cent, respectively, in the year to date.

By comparison, iEdge S-Reit Index has returned 0.8 per cent on an annualised basis over the same period.

The UK duo was joined by a much smaller reit, US Student Housing Reit, which made its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange in March and is still finding its footing.

But with the PBSA sector seen to be mostly bullish, it might be an opportune time for a pure-play student accommodation Reit to be listed in Singapore.

SPH Media Limited

1016 words
18 August 2022
Business Times Singapore
STBT
English
© 2022 SPH Media Limited



SEVERAL property-related groups posted strong results for the half year ended June. City Developments Ltd (CDL) achieved a record net profit of S$1.1 billion for H1 2022, reversing a net loss for H1 2021. CDL is paying a special interim dividend of S$0.12 per ordinary share.

The Straits Trading Company posted a 449 per cent year-on-year rise in H1 net profit to S$673 million. In the wake of its strong H1 results, the group declared a special dividend, distributing either ESR shares or Straits Trading shares to entitled shareholders.

UOL Group and its subsidiary Singapore Land Group (SingLand) saw year-on-year net profit rise 306 per cent to S$371 million and 290 per cent to S$360 million respectively. But both groups did not declare an interim dividend, which is in line with their practice of not declaring interim dividends.

Based on last year's dividend and share price as at Aug 17, 2022, UOL and SingLand traded at dividend yield of 2 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively. Such yield looks unappealing versus Singapore dollar fixed deposit rates of over 2 per cent for tenures of 18-24 months.

However, shareholders of UOL and SingLand may want to temper hopes of receiving a much higher dividend for 2022 as profit for both groups was helped by fair-value gains.

A more pressing matter for UOL and SingLand is addressing their large discount to net asset value (NAV). Based on their share prices as at Aug 17, 2022, UOL and SingLand traded at discounts to end-June NAV of 39 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

There is perhaps greater urgency for SingLand to unlock value for shareholders than UOL. Also, unlocking value at SingLand can be a precursor to unlocking value at UOL. Fortunately, SingLand has assets from which substantial value can be unlocked.

SingLand Commercial Reit

Investment properties, worth around S$6.6 billion, accounted for about 70 per cent of SingLand's total assets as at end-June. An investor buying SingLand's shares today is implicitly getting a share of prime office-centric buildings such as Singapore Land Tower, The Gateway, UIC Building and Clifford Centre at less than half-price.

The catch is that if one snares a physical property at a big discount to valuation, chances are one can sell the said asset for a good profit, whereas an investor who buys SingLand's shares at substantially below NAV may see the shares persistently trade well below NAV. SingLand's shares may be a value trap if there is no catalyst for the shares to re-rate.

On the local bourse, real estate investment trusts (Reits), which have regulations governing distribution payout, gearing level and scope of activities, typically trade at superior book value multiples versus asset-heavy property development and investment groups.

SingLand's prime Singapore commercial property portfolio has enough scale to form a Reit. And the timing for SingLand to launch a Singapore-only office-centric Reit is opportune.

With the Republic's post-pandemic reopening, workers have been returning to the Central Business District (CBD). Leasing demand for CBD Grade A office space is strong and broad-based, coming from tech firms, asset managers, insurance providers, legal firms and energy businesses. CBRE Research expects Core CBD (Grade A) office rents to grow 8.3 per cent for 2022, versus 3.8 per cent for 2021.

Recent new Reit listings have been led by trusts with overseas assets. The market here may welcome an initial public offering (IPO) of a Reit that owns Singapore assets, which local investors are familiar with, and assets in property segments with good prospects.

Privatising SingLand

UOL, where banker Wee Cho Yaw is a major shareholder, owns over 50 per cent of SingLand, while Filipino conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, led by the Gokongwei family, holds a deemed interest of about 37 per cent. SingLand's free float is around 12.6 per cent, according to its latest annual report.

Perhaps a restructuring of SingLand can see the group's Singapore commercial assets held by a listed Reit. If SingLand can list its commercial Reit at around NAV via an IPO, UOL and JG Summit may be happy to see their interests in the underlying assets diluted. UOL and JG Summit can form a joint venture to manage the said Reit.

Other assets of SingLand, such as hotels and overseas investment properties, can be retained by the group or sold. UOL can then privatise SingLand, which may be left largely holding stakes in properties under development. As it is, SingLand is UOL's junior partner in several Singapore property development projects, including that of AMO Residence, which sold almost all its units by the first day of its launch in July.

Almost a year back, Jonathan Eu, who is a grandson of Wee, became chief executive officer of SingLand. Eu is leading a major asset enhancement initiative to upgrade and modernise the group's flagship Singapore Land Tower in Raffles Place, with completion scheduled in 2023, as part of SingLand's portfolio rejuvenation.

Rejuvenating assets by introducing green features among others is critical for SingLand to ensure that its assets meet the needs of today's users. Concurrent with efforts to improve the quality of the buildings should be a strategic review by the board of directors of SingLand to unlock value for shareholders.

Property investors are willing to pay top dollar to buy chunky CBD office assets in safe-haven Singapore. Surely, the share market severely underprices SingLand's commercial assets -- this should be rectified urgently.

The writer holds shares in SingLand and UOL
SPH Media Limited

Singapore office rents are set to hit pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, as Chinese companies lead a rush to expand operations in the city-state.

The return of workers to the office this year, coupled with lockdowns in China and restrictions in Hong Kong that have forced foreign companies to consider alternative locations, pushed rents for prime office space in the city centre to S$10.74 (US$7.71) per square foot in the second quarter, according to real estate group JLL.

Rents rose 2.7 per cent compared with the previous quarter, meaning landlords in the Asian financial hub have enjoyed five consecutive quarters of growth, according to the data.

“Our forecast is that it will hit S$11 by the end of the year and rise another 25 per cent by 2026,” said Regina Lim, head of strategic advisory for JLL’s Asian capital markets business.

Rising rents have benefited Singapore’s developers and office tower owners. Shares in GuocoLand, the developer of Guoco Midtown, a new development in the city centre due to be finished this year, have risen 7 per cent year to date. Guoco Midtown has secured leases for 30 per cent of the property, agents said. The share prices of other listed real estate investment trusts with a focus on the office sector, including CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Suntec Reit, have risen this year off the back of higher incomes and signing rents for their Singapore offices.

The second-quarter numbers were just 0.6 per cent short of the S$10.81 per sq ft recorded at the end of 2019, with the Singapore market outperforming rival Asian financial centres including Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Chinese fast fashion group Shein signed a lease in the first quarter of this year, and the company’s founder and a number of staff moved to Singapore and took prime office space in Marina Bay Financial Centre.

Chinese internet group Alibaba bought a stake in a central office tower in 2020 to house its international headquarters. Plans to redevelop the building into what could become the city’s tallest skyscraper were approved last month.

Rival Chinese technology companies ByteDance and Tencent have also explored further expansion in Singapore, according to two people with knowledge of the companies’ plans.

Singapore has long been a desirable location for foreign companies to establish Asian headquarters because of its low tax rates, strong rule of law and geopolitical neutrality.

The city-state has become even more attractive during the pandemic, as lockdowns in mainland cities and severe restrictions in Hong Kong prompted companies to open offices, said Calvin Yeo, head of office advisory for Knight Frank Singapore.

Sanctions and geopolitical tensions between the US and China have made Singapore’s neutral position more prized.

“If it continues like this we will see even more,” Yeo added.

US technology group Amazon has expanded in the city-state this year, as have US asset manager BlackRock and a number of its European counterparts.

The interest has filtered through to real estate investments. Commercial real estate deals hit a record in the June quarter, jumping 74 per cent to $5.6bn, according to data from MSCI.

Singapore is seen as a more resilient haven compared with other gateway cities in the region, according to Benjamin Chow, who leads MSCI’s research on Asian commercial real estate.

But experts warned that the worsening global growth outlook and inflation could put a ceiling on Singapore’s rental growth. Technology companies, which have dominated leasing deals in the city-state, have suffered steep devaluations this year and announced job cuts.

“For the first half of this year there was definitely a strong sense that corporates wanted to grow here, but with the recent correction I would be a little more cautious about aggressive expansion,” Lim said.

Veteran short seller Jim Chanos has a new target in his sight: the humble data centre.

In June, Chanos — who won big bets on the downfall of US energy group Enron and the German payments company Wirecard — announced that his eponymous investment firm is raising several hundred million dollars for a fund that will take short positions in US-listed data centre groups.

He argues that the move towards the cloud, predominantly driven by big tech groups like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, is the “enemy” of bricks-and-mortar real estate investment trusts like Equinix and Digital Realty.

These players buy large swaths of land, build vast complexes, source major energy contracts and allow companies to lease space in their centres to process their data.

The big tech groups, by contrast, utilise their own equipment and process clients’ data for them in the ‘public cloud’. Dubbed ‘hyperscalers’, they either store their hardware and server equipment in real estate investment trusts, like Equinix — or increasingly build their own supersized centres to meet ballooning demand for their services. One Microsoft data centre in Chicago spans 700,000 sq ft, the size of 52 Olympic swimming pools.

Chanos, who has also been hurt by a longstanding bet against Tesla, believes the tech behemoths, which he says account for around two-thirds of data centre demand, will increasingly move towards building and running their own real estate. He argues they will do this because the technology used by legacy groups is becoming old and redundant and because cash-rich big tech groups can build more cheaply. This will render the independent real estate investment trusts redundant.

But other investors argue the data centre and specialist operators have life in them yet. Nathan Luckey, senior managing director of digital infrastructure at Macquarie Asset Management, who has spearheaded several recent investments in data centre assets, said the best companies are those sitting on prime real estate in strategic locations.

“Hyperscalers are looking for trusted partners where they can house more and more compute power,” he argues. “If there is someone who already has land and a property in a market they want to expand into, that’s a very relevant factor.”

Billions of dollars in private equity capital has poured into the industry, with bulls arguing that traditional data centre groups will remain indispensable given their strong position in top locations and expertise in procuring resources like power, land and labour. They also cite their privileged position as so-called “carrier hotels”, an industry term meaning they connect lots of different businesses.

These groups and their PE cheerleaders are wagering that data demand will continue to grow, and a wide range of customers — from cloud service providers to banks and government departments — will continue to store at least some of their workloads in traditional data centres.



Last year, the world’s biggest private equity firm Blackstone acquired Kansas-headquartered QTS Realty Trust for $10bn while KKR and GI Partners purchased Texas-based CyrusOne for $15bn. Earlier this month, Macquarie bought a significant minority stake in British data centre provider Virtus for an undisclosed sum, betting that big tech groups will be forced to lease as they expand into Europe.

Chanos derided these transactions as “rash”, with valuations that were “stretched by any measure”, and predicted a “post-takeover hangover” in a presentation.

Cloud business has been the engine of growth for groups like Amazon, Microsoft and Google over the past year. In the first quarter of 2022, Amazon Web Services’ revenue was up 37 per cent year on year to $18.4bn, while revenue at Microsoft’s Azure platform increased by 40 per cent.

“The compute workloads for Google and Meta are just unimaginable,” said Martijn Blanken, chief executive of EXA Infrastructure, which supplies networking infrastructure for the hyperscalers. “It’s a scale game, and there’s no enterprise that can compete with them.”

By contrast, listed US data centre groups have posted healthy — but less impressive — growth. Yet those in the data centre industry argue Chanos’s thesis is dated, given that the same arguments have emerged several times over the past 15 years, including a highly publicised short position taken against Digital Realty by Highfields Capital Management in 2013. Highfields made money, but Digital Realty is still in business.

“There’s a fallacy in the argument that we’re not growing as fast as the cloud providers which means we are threatened by them,” said Andy Power, president and chief financial officer at Digital Realty. He added that ‘co-location’ groups like Digital Realty — where one party provides the real estate and customers provide the tech — “enable” the transition to the cloud, and have seen an increase in leasing from many hyperscalers in recent years, rather than a dip.

Tech groups have made a noticeable shift towards greater leasing over the past six months driven by a handful of key companies, including Meta, Microsoft, ByteDance and Twitter. This uptick has reversed a previous trend towards greater in-house construction.

“I don’t think [hyperscalers] can keep up with the pace of their business on their own,” said Charles Meyers, chief executive officer of Equinix.

Power added: “These cloud service providers are blessed with lots of capital, yes, but they have better uses for it, honestly.”

Brendan Lynch, an analyst at Barclays, pointed out that in many metropolitan areas of the US Equinix is the first or second largest data centre provider, giving the company a higher degree of pricing power. “That’s why we still like Equinix even though we realise there are some risks to our thesis,” he said.



One key risk is that should the land, labour and energy supply crunches ease, big tech groups may shift to constructing more of their own data centres.

For independent operators to maintain their appeal, differentiation is key, argue analysts. Most big businesses use a suite of different services, from Gmail to Workday, all hosted on different clouds. For all of these software applications to run smoothly together there need to be physical locations where data can pass quickly and seamlessly from one to the other.

Equinix’s “secret sauce” is this networking capability, according to Meyers, given it is nearly impossible for hyperscalers to replicate.

“Cloud service providers have spent billions building their own data centres,” said Nick Del Deo, an analyst at MoffettNathanson. “They have not spent a single dollar trying to replicate what Equinix has built.” 

So-called ‘interconnection’ constitutes around 35 per cent of Equinix’s earnings, as compared to 14 per cent of Digital Realty’s, according to MoffettNathanson calculations — though the latter has sought to expand in this market.

By contrast, Digital Realty, along with private groups CyrusOne and CloudHQ, have focused heavily on the bricks-and-mortar business. This segment is more vulnerable to increased competition from the big cloud service providers as well as smaller data centre groups that are being pumped with billions of capital from private equity firms and infrastructure investment funds.

“I do think there may be a glut at some point because everyone and their uncle is building data centres at the moment,” said David Friend, chief executive of Wasabi, a cloud storage company that leases from several data centre groups. “Right now there is an undersupply, but it’s going to be like oil prices: everyone is going to drill drill drill — and then it will force prices down until there’s greater consolidation in the market.”

Additional reporting by Harriet Agnew

Numerous Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) posted growth in distribution per unit (DPU) from a year ago for the latest quarter or half-year ended June 2022. Some trusts are benefiting from Singapore's opening up amid living with Covid.

DPU matters greatly to many Reit investors - typically, this is money that is paid out to the investors. For retirees, receiving recurring distribution income from Reits, which may grow over time, is very useful, especially with rising inflation.

Still, many Reit managers expressed caution on the path ahead. Several managers were at pains to highlight efforts made to manage their borrowings amid rising interest rates, such as having a high proportion of fixed rate debt, a long average debt maturity and well-spread out debt maturities.

Like many businesses, Reits benefited from low borrowing costs. The DPU of Reits could be boosted by trusts taking on more borrowings at low interest rates. Perhaps it is useful for investors, who focus on DPU, to understand how the use of leverage and payment of fees to the manager in the form of units can be used to boost a Reit's DPU.

Use of debt

Typically, a Reit owns a portfolio of properties, which is bought by using a mix of debt and equity, with unitholders of the trust contributing the equity.

Often, rental income contributes almost all of gross revenue. Net property income (NPI) is derived after deducting property operating expenses from revenue. Distribution income is the NPI less expenses such as debt costs and management fees. Distribution income is divided by the number of Reit units outstanding to get the DPU.

If interest costs on debt is less than the NPI yield, using more debt will boost the returns that a Reit's unitholders can receive. Generally, using more floating rate debt instead of fixed rate debt helps lower debt cost. However, when interest rates rise, a trust, which borrows more at floating rather than fixed rates, is less insulated from the adverse impact of rising interest rates.

Paying fees in units

Many Reits pay their managers fees via a mix of cash and new units of the Reit. The initial public offering prospectuses of Singapore's two newest Reits - Daiwa House Logistics Trust (DHLT) and Digital Core Reit (DC Reit) - show that the management fee, which comprises base fee and performance fee, as well as the acquisition fee and divestment fee payable to the manager can be paid via cash and/or units as the manager may elect.

With DHLT, the manager will collect 50 per cent of the base fee and performance fee, if any, in the form of units and the remaining 50 per cent of the fees in cash for 2022. The manager of DC Reit will collect 100 per cent of the base fee and performance fee in the form of units for 2022 and 2023.

Where a Reit pays its manager fees in cash, this expense reduces the distributable income. If a Reit pays its manager fees in units, there is no immediate hit to the distributable income. In such an instance, the number of units in issue rises, which can negatively impact the DPU in future.

Results of simulation

I ran a simulation to analyse the impact of the use of leverage and payment of fees to the manager in units on dpu. I assumed that a Reit owns S$2 billion of property that generates NPI yield of 4.5 per cent. I used borrowing costs of 2.5 per cent per annum, annual management fees of 0.6 per cent of assets and other expenses of S$2 million.

Under Scenario A, the Reit is funded 80 per cent by equity and 20 per cent by debt, and the manager's fees are paid all in cash. Under Scenario B, the Reit is funded 60 per cent by equity and 40 per cent by debt, and the manager's fees are paid all in units.

The result, as shown in the table, is that DPU under Scenario B is 37 per cent higher than under Scenario A. An investor, who focuses on DPU, may price a Reit structured along the lines of that in Scenario B much more richly than that in Scenario A.

But there can be costs related to using more debt and paying fees via units. When a Reit uses more debt, there is less capacity to borrow more in order to fund a potentially attractive investment opportunity, as Reits have to adhere to borrowing limits under Singapore's framework.

If credit market conditions tighten, the refinancing risk when loans mature is higher for a more highly-geared Reit. Also, a more highly-geared Reit risks breaching borrowing limits should property valuations fall substantially.

The issuing of new Reit units to pay the manager's fees can dilute the interest of existing unitholders and hamper the rate of DPU growth. Some Reit investors may also be less sensitive to the amount of fees that are being paid to the manager in such a situation. For a Reit that trades below book value, issuing new units based on market price means new equity is being issued at less than book value, which may not make sense.

Reits are structured real estate products. Clever structuring can prop up the return being generated from the underlying real estate, be it from using rental income support, paying fees in units or using debt among others.

Much as DPU matters, investors may do well to place as much emphasis on the net asset value (NAV) per unit. So long as the valuations behind the NAV are robust, the NAV gives a good estimation of the value of the assets in the Reit that can be potentially realised.

While it is hard to buy a physical property in Singapore at below market value, one can find Reits that trade at a substantial discount to NAV. Some Reits that trade below book value may offer superior value to buying physical properties and thus merit serious consideration by investors.

© 2022 SPH Media Limited