Sebi remains bullish on Reit market in India, says WTM Ashwani Bhatia

WTM Ashwani Bhatia says benchmarking to bring accuracy, efficiency, and more customers into its fold

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) expects the assets under management of real estate investment trusts (Reits) to surge manifold in the coming years, underpinned by regulatory reforms, transparency in the valuations and enhanced performance metrics, whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the launch of Data Benchmarking Institutions (DBIs) by the Indian Reits Association (IRA). These platforms — managed each by financial firms CareEdge, CAMS, and KFintech — will provide investors with comparative analysis and information on the performance, valuation standards, and disclosures of Indian Reits.

“Reits in India have seen remarkable growth. We have seen a vibrant industry unfold before our eyes. The total assets under management (AUM) of Reits currently stand at Rs 1.4 trillion (but) there is potential for much more,” Bhatia said.

“Sebi has taken several measures to boost investor confidence, ease of capital raising, and further refining primary market framework to allow investors to be a part of the decision making,” he said.

The Sebi official said that the benchmarking will bring about accuracy, efficiency, and more customers into the Reit fold.

Currently, there are four publicly listed Reits in India with the first listing in 2019. The market regulator has also opened the doors for fractional ownership platforms in real estate to register as small and medium Reits.

 “DBI will help investors in understanding valuations of Reits assets and the impact of various assumptions and understand the risks and rewards associated. This will bring a lot of transparency and will also help take away any noise on Reits,” Bhatia added.

“Reits will lead to the financialisation of the assets. It also takes away the risks from the banking system and makes investments in the markets more transparent,” he added.