Article: Organizing REITs in Asia
Kelvin F.K. Low (The University of Hong Kong – Faculty of Law), Jianbo Lou (Peking University – Law School), Alex Yueh-Ping Yang (National Taiwan University – College of Law) and Mutsuhiko Yukioka recently published, Organizing REITs in Asia, 2026. Provided below is an Abstract:
The Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) was formally born in the United States in 1960 in an era in which corporations had long eclipsed the trust as a vehicle for commerce. It was, however, structured as a trust because of historical reasons peculiar to the United States. Despite its longevity, REITs only gained popularity in the United States in the 1990s before spreading around the world, including Asia from the new millennium. This chapter explores the spread of the REIT in four major Asian jurisdictions: mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan and explores peculiarities of the REIT structure in each jurisdiction, focusing on two matters. First, the organizational structure of REITs in each jurisdiction: do they actually make use of the trust and if so, how and why? Relatedly, the implications of the trust (or non-trust) structure for the REITs market in each jurisdiction. Secondly, the regulatory challenges that REITs have posed, whether or not these are derived from their organizational form.