The 2026 Shanghai Stock Exchange International Investor Conference was held in Shanghai on November 12.
During a roundtable discussion on "REITs Market Development Outlook," Wang Xin, Chief Investment Officer of CapitaLandInvest (China), stated that China has rapidly established a multi-tiered REITs market in just five years, with a pace of development that has exceeded the expectations of market participants. Products such as public REITs, commercial real estate REITs, and institutional REITs have continued to diversify, offering more choices to different types of investors.
Wang Xin noted that CapitaLandInvest has been developing in China for over 30 years and possesses experience in commercial real estate development, investment, operations, and management. With the launch of China's public REITs market, CapitaLandInvest has actively participated in the construction of the domestic market, successfully issuing its first onshore public REIT last year. In September this year, it also issued an onshore institutional REIT product and continues to advance the issuance of a public REIT for commercial real estate.
She stated that one of the most significant aspects of public REITs is that they enable CapitaLandInvest's "invest, finance, manage, and exit" business model in China to form a complete closed loop. The pricing reference established through the public REITs market drives capital recycling and sustained investment.
Regarding institutional REITs, Wang Xin believes this is an innovative product with Chinese characteristics. It not only features standardization, regulated disclosure, and supervision, but also meets the demands of certain institutional investors for yield stability and asset allocation, helping to attract more long-term capital into China's real estate market.
Turning to the market's future development, Wang Xin pointed out that compared with mature markets such as Singapore, individual public REIT products in China remain relatively small in scale. Large-scale REITs typically offer better liquidity, more diversified asset portfolios, and lower financing costs, which help attract large institutional investors.
She looks forward to the emergence of 100-billion-yuan-scale REITs in the Chinese market in the future, and suggests further improving institutional arrangements, encouraging products to grow stronger and better through mergers and acquisitions as well as follow-on offerings, enhancing asset operation and management capabilities, and cultivating competitive leading REIT managers and operating managers to promote the long-term healthy development of China's REITs market.
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