우리나라 리츠의 현황과 활성화 방안

우리나라 리츠 현황을 분석하고 활성화 방안을 제시했다.

During the foreign currency crisis in 1997, Korea entered into the IMF Management System and attempted to secure investment mobility by disposing real estate which was owned by company and financial institutions through restructuring process. However, there was a limited number of purchasers to buy the real estate on offer in reality. Accordingly, 「Real Estate Investment Trusts(here in after, REITs)」 was enacted on April 2001 and enforced from July 2001 in order to secure mobility of real estate investment, to provide general public with healthy real estate investment opportunity, and to activate healthy real estate investment by securing the foundation of demands for real estate.

Due to various problems, not a single general REITs was established so far. Instead, REITs for corporation restructuring(here in after, CR-REITs) were partially established and operated. Fortunately, various problems of REITs were improved and supplemented by the amended regulations of 2005, however, obstacles for activation of REITs still exist. Thus, this study aims to suggest plans for activation of REITs in Korea by comparing the cases in the advanced countries. First, in America, there is no regulation for the minimum amount of capital to establish REITs, encouraging establishment thereof. Once REITs are established, they are controlled by reinforced regulations in operation in America.

However, in Korea, the minimum amount of capital to establish REITs is fixed as 25 billion won, discouraging establishment of REITs by burdening investor with financial provision at the initial stage of establishment. Accordingly, the regulation for the minimum amount of capital to establish REITs should be abolished. Moreover, strict follow-up after REITs establishment and reinforcement of regulations in operating them should be made in order to protect investors. Second, investment profits should be guaranteed to a certain amount in order to activate REITs. However, it is difficult to find appropriate investment object that will satisfy the desired profits of investor.

To solve such a problem, supports by introducing taxation system through policy are required such as exemption of corporate tax, registration tax, acquisition tax, and transfer income tax. In addition, advanced management system should be introduced including efficient property management. Third, the retention period should be limited for CR-REITs, and conversion of CR-REITs to general REITs(optional nominal company) should be allowed, if CR-REITs wish to retain themselves after the expiration of the retention period. It is to reduce difficulties in liquidation due to a surge of real estates on offer at once, and to prevent damages of investors.

Fourth, unscientific and illogical operational and structural problems of the Korean real estate market, and ethical slackness of management of corporation are responsible for the distrust of investors on the Korean real estate market. Accordingly, related personnel of REITs should be controlled and monitored more strictly in order to elevate reliability of REITs and make REITs more transparent in Korea. Training for the related personnel should be reinforced to educate them with a strong sense of work ethics. As mentioned above, various plans were suggested to activate real estate investment firms in this study.

It is assumed that the Korean government is well aware of the necessity of resolute systemic supports through policy in order to solve the problems which had been occurred so far. It is understandable that REITs in Korea have many problems and go through trials and errors, since they are in their initial stage compared to the advanced countries. The amount of current price of listed REITs in Korea is about 540 billion won which is only 0.13% of the total amount of current price of security market. On the contrary, it is 2.15% in America which is almost 17 times higher than that of Korean REITs.

It took 30 years for REITs to settle down in America, and there were a great number of trials and errors in Japan and Australia regarding REITs as well. Thus, resonable improvement should be made for all the problems pointed out through application procedure of REITs in Korea in order to stabilize them in a short period of time. This may contributes to activate indirect investment for real estate through REITs, so that specialization and enlargement of real estate capital in the real estate industry, professionalization and specialization of real estate industry, and transparency in real estate market are possible.

Furthermore, it also contributes to block investment on real estate itself due to indirect investment on real estate through REITs stock, to propel professional development of real estate in each specific field, to stabilize investment pattern of real estate for a long term, to establish investment policy of real estate that values cash flow, and to integrate real estate market with capital market organ.