KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): The Malaysian REIT Managers Association (MRMA) has announced that Malaysian Real Estate Investment Trusts (M-REITs) in 2024 has achieved a 7% increase year-to-date on the Bursa Malaysia REIT Index. This was announced in a statement on Thursday (Sept 19) at the MRMA's fourth REIT Forum held recently. Also attending the forum was Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.

According to the statement, this increase was achieved “as global benchmark interest rates have peaked, and sound fundamentals have supported strong earnings growth for M-REITs”.

MRMA Chair and Axis REIT Managers Bhd chief executive officer Leong Kit May said in her opening remarks at the forum that M-REIT commercial sub-sectors were bolstered by proactive government policies such as the 30-day visa exemption for China and India visitors. For the first half of 2024, tourism arrivals grew 30% while tourism receipts grew by 50% compared to the same period last year.

“Meanwhile, the industrial property sub-sector is enjoying stable occupancy rates and steady rental reversions driven by a sharp rise in foreign direct investments into Malaysia’s industrial space in 2024,” she said.

“Total approved investments in Malaysia grew almost 13% in the first quarter of the year, amid favourable government policies and incentives. These include strategic policy efforts to attract investments in high growth industries such as data centres, with Johor Bahru emerging as one of the fastest-growing data centre markets in Southeast Asia.

“The office sector has also seen improvement in demand for space as more and more companies are moving their workforce back to physical offices.”

Furthermore, several M-REITs have pursued expansion plans in 2024 with notable acquisitions in the industrial, hospitality and retail REIT spaces.  

M-REITs were introduced to investors with the first listing in 2005, and market capitalisation has quadrupled from RM9 billion in 2010 to RM41 billion as of Dec 31, 2023. There are 19 listed REITs.

The statement also highlighted the resilience of M-REITs, which suffered during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, but have recovered sharply once the economy reopened.

M-REITs have embarked on ESG initiatives at various states to fulfil zero-carbon strategies, and have embraced the use of artificial intelligence and proptech, which will enable them to automate of processes, reduce costs, optimise power usage and limit resource wastage.