Institutional real estate investment trusts (REITs) are receiving increased policy backing. Recently, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) revised its rules, creating a special chapter for institutional REITs under the "Guidelines for the Listing Conditions Confirmation Rules Applicable to Asset-Backed Securities." This update formally designates real estate ABS with equity characteristics as institutional REITs, clarifying their equity-oriented product positioning and requirements.
Data shows that 90 institutional REIT projects have been submitted to the SSE so far, with a total scale exceeding 170 billion yuan. The "CCB Rental Housing Fund Holding Property Asset-Backed Plan" (hereafter "CCB Long-term Rental Project"), established in July 2024, is China's first housing rental institutional REIT. It is managed by CICC as the ABS manager, with CCB Rental Housing Fund as the original equity holder.
Recently, the CCB Long-term Rental Project held its 2025 annual and Q1 2026 performance release and investor exchange event in Beijing. A visit was made to the project's underlying assets. Jia Zhouqi, Executive Head of the Fixed Income Group at CICC, stated that with the robust development and continuous improvement of the institutional REIT market over the past two years, the CCB Long-term Rental Project has maintained stable operations. It has demonstrated stable returns and strong market vitality through solid underlying assets, a standardized governance system, and mature operational capabilities, delivering a credible performance to the market and investors.
Continuous Expansion to Enhance Asset Portfolio Value
"The project's founding vision is to create an asset listing platform, focusing on large scale, stable operations, and strong liquidity. Therefore, we continue to drive expansion to increase the asset portfolio's value," said the project lead. In September last year, the CCB Long-term Rental Project successfully completed its first expansion, marking the first such instance in the market. This expansion attracted 33 investment institutions, with a subscription multiple of 7.8 times, laying a solid foundation for secondary market liquidity.
One asset visited, "Boyuan Yuan'er" in Beijing's Jiugong area, is a scarce large-scale long-term rental apartment community in the city and is among the reserve assets for the CCB Long-term Rental Project's continuous expansion. This project comprises 1,505 white-collar apartments, which began operations in September 2025. As of May 31 this year, the spot occupancy rate had reached 94.1%. During the visit, institutional investors—primarily from insurance, bank wealth management, and brokerage asset management firms—inquired about room sizes, rental prices, tenant profiles, and nearby amenities.
The project lead noted that the underlying assets now cover five assets across four cities. As expansion continues, the asset base is expected to become more diversified, enhancing advantages in asset dispersion, product scale, and secondary market liquidity. "The underlying assets and operational capabilities must pass market scrutiny, providing stable and long-term sustainable returns. The product must also have good liquidity to attract diverse investors and boost secondary market trading," the lead added. "The CCB Long-term Rental Project's assets are all government-subsidized rental housing, a product type with stable cash flows that provides robust asset support for investors." Since its listing on the SSE, the project's valuation (ex-rights) has shown a steady upward trend, more stable than recently issued 5-year, 10-year, and 30-year government bonds.
"Sound investment strategies paired with standardized operational management are crucial for the product's stability and long-term success," said Jia Zhouqi. The CCB Long-term Rental Project has convened 10 management committee meetings, involving investor representatives in major decisions like budgets, renovations, profit distribution, and asset expansion. This fosters deep co-governance, transparent oversight, and a healthy investor interaction ecosystem. Jia added, "Looking ahead, we will further explore high-quality rental housing assets, pursue a normalized, high-quality, and stable expansion strategy, and enhance the product's income stability, asset diversity, and market competitiveness. Our goal is to establish the CCB Long-term Rental Project as a trusted market benchmark, promoting the standardized and high-quality development of the rental housing market."
Benchmark Projects Continue to Advance Market Construction
The CCB Long-term Rental Project's performance reflects the vibrant growth of the institutional REIT market. Institutional REITs are innovative equity-type ABS products within the SSE's asset securitization framework. Their core function aligns with IPOs and public REITs, making them standard asset listing vehicles. They are a key part of building a multi-tiered REIT market, bridging Pre-REITs and public REITs by serving as a reserve for the latter.
Since launching the first institutional REIT in December 2023, the SSE has pushed forward market development, securing benchmark projects in areas like affordable rental housing, energy infrastructure, warehousing, and data centers. It has also implemented innovative mechanisms for incentives, information disclosure, secondary trading, and platform expansion, fostering synergistic development with public REITs. To date, 90 projects have been submitted, with a combined scale over 170 billion yuan, and 55 projects have been successfully issued, raising nearly 100 billion yuan.
"In the next step, following the China Securities Regulatory Commission's overall plan, we will focus on market organization and ecosystem development. We aim to effectively promote project implementation, encourage market players to explore asset-type innovations, and comprehensively drive high-quality development of the institutional REIT market," an SSE official stated. Industry experts believe that with continuous policy improvements and deepening investor understanding, the market capacity and product innovation space for institutional REITs will expand, injecting sustained financial momentum into the real economy.
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