REIT Real Estate Investment Trust

Contrary to what Many investors think the REITs or Real Estate Investment Trusts are not the phenomena surfaced during the recent real estate booms and the REIT platform is over a century old.  Although many REITs and other investment clubs popped up during 1990’s and recently 2005-2007 period but the history takes REITs dates all the way back to 1880’s when it was used as a tax shelter against double-taxation on corporate and individuals.   The international Real Estate Investments Trusts, on the other hand, are fairly new and are different in qualification standards by each country.  Modern countries like Canada or England have adopted the regulation for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) as recent as 2007 in England.

The tax benefits, power buying and expert management of these Trusts has attracted investors since 1990.  Lee A. Chilcote from Arter & Hadden estimates the market expansion from $5.5 Billion in 1990 to over $140 Billion in 1998.  According to REIT.Com, all REITs index in was up by 28% in 2010, which easily surpassed the broader market index when S&P 500 saw an increase of 15.1 and NASDAQ Composite was up 16.1%.