S-REIT surges on cooling US inflation

An analyst at Industrial Bank Singapore, said that whether the sell-off in S-REITs is coming to an end depends largely on when global inflation, particularly in the US, reaches its peak, and when the US Federal Reserve starts to slow down in raising interest rates. And he expected that the S-REIT is likely to bottom out in the next three to six months.

An analyst said that the overall performance of S-REITs was within expectations, with hotel REITs performing the best. Key operating metrics remained largely stable for most S-REITs, but higher interest costs for most of them affected the per-unit dividend payout.

Tips on investing REITs
Investors should be aware of the trust's gearing ratio, especially if the debt ratio is above 41% to 42%, and the interest cover ratio. Investors should also be aware of whether the trust has significant debt maturities in the near future.

There are number of trusts have seen their payout per unit affected by higher borrowing costs and property operating expenses, such as Suntec REIT $Suntec Reit(T82U.SG)$ and MIT $Mapletree Ind Tr(ME8U.SG)$ saw their payouts per unit decrease by 6.6% and 3.2% YoY.