S-REITs With US Office Assets See High Returns In Nov

SINGAPORE – Data from the local bourse showed that most Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (S-REITs) and Singapore-listed property trusts saw positive overall returns in the month to date until 16 November 2023, reported The Business Times on Sunday afternoon (19 November, SGT).

According to SGX Research, 10 of these entities witnessed double-digit gains that average at 28.9 percent. And for most of the 10 real estate trusts, the majority of their properties are located overseas.

The top four performers during the period were dominated by office S-REITs, with their total returns averaging 53.9 percent. In particular, three of them are pure-play US office REITs whose overall returns surged by 82.9 percent, 66 percent, and 44.3 percent. The fourth is a pure-play UK office S-REIT whose total returns rose by 22.5 percent.

SGX Research said the robust recovery in November of these four S-REITs slashed the average year-to-date fall in their returns to 45.8 percent as of 16 November from 62.6 percent at the end of October 2023.

As for the remaining six property trusts that registered double-digit gains in November, their overall return gains were 10.4 percent, 11.2 percent, 12.0 percent, 12.5 percent, 13.3 percent, and 13.7 percent.

However, data from Cushman and Wakefield (C&W) showed that leasing demand for office buildings across the United States remained under pressure during the third quarter, with the overall office vacancy level in the country rising by 55 basis points to 19.4 percent.

Conversely, the latest figures from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) revealed that office rental demand in the United Kingdom continued to be resilient during the third quarter, with overall leasing demand reaching 2.2 million sq ft – the highest quarterly volumes in 2023. Although it exceeded the figure seen in Q2 2023, it was still slightly below the country’s long-term average.