REAL ESTATE - Standard & Poor鈥檚 has launched nine new Property and REIT Peer Indices - designed to give a more accurate reflection of global property and REIT investment trends.
The launch coincides with S&P鈥檚 seventh annual GICS index revision.
The S&P/Citigroup Property and REIT Index series now goes beyond the GICS sub-industry level in classifying both Property and REIT constituents at a fifth level known as Peer Groups, said an S&P release.
鈥淭his structure more appropriately reflects the global Property & REIT investment landscape by more closely defining narrower baskets of real estate companies which share common economic drivers and profit breakdowns.鈥�
According to the performance analysis of S&P/Citigroup Property & REIT indices, Europe topped listed property companies in Q1 2006 with a record 20.4% growth.
Furthermore, Europe鈥檚 REIT market performance brought in a stronger 22.9% over the same period, said S&P.
鈥淧roperty and REITs afford diversification through relatively low volatility and lesser correlation with other asset classes, in addition to consistently demonstrating higher dividend yields than traditional equities.鈥�
It added that Japan Post 鈥� the world鈥檚 largest financial institution with $3tn in assets under management 鈥� recently made public a new mutual fund line-up based on the S&P/Citigroup World REIT Index.
