REITS

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are companies that own and often actively manage income-generating commercial real estate, such as shopping centers, apartments, offices and warehouses.

A REIT is a company that buys, develops, manages and sells real estate assets and allows participants to invest in a professionally managed portfolio of properties. Some REITs make or invest in loans and other obligations, which are secured by real estate collateral. A REIT operates like a mutual fund, where investments of individual investors are invested in real estate rather than in the equities market. REITs also help raise funds for the real-estate business – i.e. to fund construction of new offices, factories, residential flats, shopping malls, etc. Many private real-estate companies used REITs to access capital through the public marketplace.