ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the growth and performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs) listed in Japan and Hong Kong. It addresses the prospect of a vibrant REIT market emerging in China. The development of the REIT sector in Japan is a global success story, becoming the second largest REIT market in the world in less than 20 years, despite the impact of the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 and the Euro crisis of 2011. As a developing REIT sector, the Hong Kong market might be expected to be seeking growth but it is structurally challenged in such aspirations through its unique combination of a long-standing and well-understood competing property company sector, heavily financially engineered REIT structures and the absence of tax transparency in its REIT legislation and regulation. It is challenging to identify a REIT sector in the North Asia region that would generate greater REIT investor demand than China when the sector finally emerges.
