不動産投資信託制度 導入의 妥當性에 관한 硏九

부동산투자신탁(REITs) 제도 도입의 타당성을 연구했다.

REIT is essentially a corporation or business trust that combines the capital of many investors to acquire or provide financing for all forms of real estate. REIT serves much as a mutual fund for real estate in that retail investors obtain the benefit of a diversified portfolio under professional management. Its shares are freely traded, often on a major stock exchange. REIT is a company that buys, develops, manages and sells real estate assets. REIT allow participants to invest in a professionally-managed portfolio of real estate properties.

REIT qualify as pass-through entities, companies who are able distribute the majority of income cash flows to investors without taxation at the corporate level (providing that certain conditions are met). As pass-through entities whose main function is to pass profits on to investors, a REIT's business activities are generally restricted to the generation of property rental income. Another major advantage of REIT investment is its liquidity (ease of liquidation of assets into cash), as compared to traditional private real estate ownership which is not very easy to liquidate.

One reason for the liquid nature of REIT investments is that its shares are primarily traded on major exchanges, making it easier to buy and sell REIT assets/shares than to buy and sell properties in private markets.

In addition to avoiding double taxation and requiring a small minimum investment, REITs also offer investors: Current income : usually stable and often provides an attractive return Professional management : REIT managers are skilled, experienced real estate professionals Portfolio diversification : minimizes risk Performance Monitoring : a REIT's performance is monitored on a regular basis by independent directors of the REIT, independent analysts, independent auditors, and the business and financial media. This scrutiny provides the investor with a measure of protection and more than one barometer of the REIT's financial condition.

In order for a corporation or trust to qualify as a REIT, it must comply with certain provisions within the Internal Revenue Code.

As required by the Tax Code, a REIT must : be a corporation, business trust or similar associations; be managed by a board of directors or trustees; have shares that are fully transferable; have a minimum of 100 shareholders; have no more than 50 percent of the shares held by five or fewer individuals during the last half of each taxable year; invest at least 75 percent of the total assets in real estate assets; derive at least 75 percent of gross income from rents from real property, or interest on mortgages on real property No more than 30% of gross income can come from the sale of real property held for less than four years pay dividends of at least 95 percent of REIT's taxable income.

The REIT industry has a diverse profile, which offers many attractive opportunities to investors. REIT industry analysts often classify REITs in one of three investment approaches : Equity REITs, Mortgage REITs, and Hybrid REITs. There are over 300 REITs operating in the United States today. Their assets total over $160 billion. Over 70 percent of these trades on the national stock exchanges : ①New York Stock Exchange - 169 REITs, ②American Stock Exchange - 29 REITs, ③NASDAQ National Market System - 17 REITs. REIT employ professional management, individuals who are hired and periodically reviewed by the REIT's board of directors.

REIT managers are selected based upon their extensive real estate background and expertise. REIT can be either internally managed or externally advised. REIT were created to provide investors with the opportunity to participate in the benefits of ownership of larger-scale commercial real estate or lending mortgage, and receive an enhanced return, because the income is not taxed at the REIT entity level. This means that a diverse range of investors can realize investment opportunities otherwise available only to those with larger resources.

The introduction of REIT can globally standardize our real estate investment market, improve the financial structure of the firms which are in depression under the IMF-supported regime and secure the transparency of price for real estate in addition to securing the new route of funds. Therefore, this study contends that it is necessary to enact the new 'REIT ACT' based on the existing 'Securities Investment Company Act' so as to introduce the REIT system into KOREA. And there should be the financial commodity and competitiveness(yield) of the capital market such as stocks, bonds, deposits and the like in introducing the REIT system into KOREA.

As a result of making the feasibility study of its introduction, it was estimated in this study that the rate of operating profits of real estate(office building) is 4.7%-7.1% under the current system (on the basis of REIT). But the somewhat high rate of operating profits was estimated to be 6.08%-8.47% in case the acquisition-related tax was exempted at 100%. Consequently, the active tax incentive in the tax system related to real estate is needs to introduce the large-scale REIT system.

And to construct the infrastructure of the real estate market, it is very urgent to apply the 'capitalization approach' as the valuation method, establish the information disclosure system of real estate, raise the function of the [credit rating agenc y] for real estate and development planning, draw up the [real estate index] and provide institutional support for [asset management] & [real estate consulting] business.