S&P Global Ratings had anticipated more than US$5 trillion ($6.6 trillion) of commercial assets to be packaged into REITs. According to a recent report, the assets in commercial C-REITs totalled just US$1.95 billion.
Once seen to have huge potential, the China REIT sector (C-REIT) remains a work in progress. C-REITs started with infrastructure and affordable rental housing REITs. One of the first to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2022 was GLP C-REIT. Since then, some 24 infrastructure C-REITs have been listed.
In 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) expanded C-REITs to include "consumer infrastructure". Against this background, in March 2024, Huaxia Jinmao Commercial REIT and Harvest Wumart Consumer REIT were launched on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE).
