Is it true that housing rental REITs are brewing and starting?

Meng Xiaosu, chairman of China Real Estate Development Group, previously revealed in public that China Securities Regulatory Commission recently organized a special committee in the name of China Securities Fund Association to promote real estate securitization. The reporter also learned that at present, domestic multi-parent rental apartment management enterprises are actively contacting the CSRC to issue housing rental asset securitization projects, especially REITs projects.

Encouraging the development of the housing rental market has become one of the policy priorities of the real estate industry this year. On the basis of "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of the Housing Rental Market" issued by the State Council on 20 16, nine ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Development of the Housing Rental Market in Large and Medium-sized Cities with Net Population Inflow" on July 20 17, encouraging various ways and channels to broaden the rental housing and establish 17.

Driven by relevant policies, the industry expects that the market space for housing leasing will be very broad. It is predicted that the domestic housing rental market will reach10.6 trillion yuan in 2020 and 4 trillion yuan in 2030. There are many net population inflows in first-tier cities, especially in Beishang and Shenzhen, where the housing rental market grows at an average annual rate of 15%.

It is worth noting that for a long time, the narrow financing channel has been one of the main difficulties faced by housing leasing enterprises. Guo Yonggang, general manager of the structural financing department of Oriental Jincheng, a rating agency, said in an interview with the Economic Information Daily that at present, the participants in the long-term rental apartment market in China mainly include large real estate developers, hotel industry, long-term rental apartment operators under housing agencies and other operators mainly based on Internet startups. "In addition to large-scale traditional real estate developers with rich financing channels, other apartment operators currently rely mainly on three financing channels: bank loans or off-balance sheet financing; Issue wealth management products through the Internet financial platform; Equity financing or shareholder loans, private financing. The above financing channels generally have problems of limited scale and high cost. " He said. The reporter learned that housing leasing companies often adopt the light asset strategy model of renting houses, which is conducive to the rapid development of enterprises, but it also leads to the lack of collateral to obtain traditional financing such as bank loans, and some apartment enterprises holding housing property rights are unable to effectively revitalize their assets, making it difficult to expand their development.

In fact, the acceleration of REITs landing is also traceable. Recently, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other places have introduced a new lease policy, all of which propose to increase financial support for housing leasing.

Many insiders said that asset securitization (ABS) and REITs are suitable for domestic housing leasing enterprises and are expected to become important financing channels for such enterprises in the future. It is worth noting that in June 5438+ 10 this year, Rubik's Apartment, a long-term rental apartment operator, issued the first asset securitization product in China's single apartment industry, and in August this year, the long-term rental apartment operator under Chain Home also issued asset securitization products for free.

Yu Qiang, executive general manager of CITIC Securities' asset securitization business line, said that asset securitization can provide financial tools for housing leasing companies to revitalize their stocks, whether based on rental income or leased property itself, especially to carry out REITs operation based on leased property itself, which can help housing leasing companies to carry out asset-light strategy, change from long-term holding of assets to rental housing management, thus on the one hand promoting enterprises to rapidly increase the investment scale of leased housing and further promoting the rapid development of the housing leasing market; On the other hand, it helps enterprises to improve the return on investment, thus forming a long-term mechanism for the housing rental market.

Jing, deputy secretary-general of the Financial Professional Committee of China Real Estate Association, said in an interview with the Economic Information Daily that REITs are an effective channel for small and medium-sized investors to enjoy real estate dividends in addition to investing in real estate entities. The shares owned by investors can be transferred and have good liquidity. Jing said that REITs' income all comes from real estate rental income and real estate appreciation, and has low correlation with the stock market and bond market. Most of the proceeds will be used for dividends, and the long-term yield is relatively high.

However, some insiders said that the promotion of REITs in China still faces some tax problems. Guo Yonggang said, for example, REITs in the United States have tax incentives, which can be exempted from corporate income tax at the company level, and the real estate invested by REITs in the United States is also tax-free assets. However, at present, there is no tax support policy in China, and there is a high tax burden in real estate transfer, REITs operation and investor income.