Open Door To Foreign Property Acquisitions By Japanese REITs

A bill to allow to Japanese listed REITs to own a majority stake of foreign real estate special-purpose companies will be submitted to the Diet next year. Currently REITs cannot own majority stakes in firms. The revisions would make an exception for overseas SPCs, which would practically open the door to foreign property acquisitions by Japanese REITs. Japanese REITs' total market capitalization has shrunk to around 3.5 trillion yen (44 billion dollars) , down from nearly 7 trillion yen (88 billion dollars) in 2007.