Recent updates to the Framework for Listed Real Estate Investment Trusts

29 February 2024

1. a new Guidance has been added to paragraph 7.04 to provide greater clarity on the name of a listed REIT, namely that the SC will consider a listed REIT’s name to be inappropriate if it contains SRI-related or ESG-related terms (such as “sustainability”, “carbon efficient”, “environment” and “climate”) but the REIT is not a qualified fund under the SC’s Guidelines on Sustainable and Responsible Investment Funds; 


2. paragraph 13.18(a) has been amended to extend the time frame for a management company to hold an annual general meeting of the unit holders of a listed REIT from four to six months from the end of a REIT’s financial year; 


3. paragraph 19.06 has been amended as follows: 

• to state that any valuation of real estate to be submitted under the Guidelines must be as stipulated in the SC’s Asset Valuation Guidelines; and 


• the two-week to four-week time frame to submit the valuation report before the submission of the application proper has been removed but nevertheless the requirement remains for the valuation report to be submitted to the SC before the application proper is submitted; and 

4. paragraph 21.02 has been deleted as the provisions therein have been subsumed into paragraph 19.01. 

1. the definition of “unit trust fund” has been deleted from paragraph 2.01 as the term is not used in the Guidelines; and 


2. Schedule D which sets out the information and documentation requirements for various applications to be submitted under the Guidelines has been deleted in its entirety and the following consequential amendments have been made: 

• paragraph 19.01 has been amended to provide that the information and documents to be submitted in respect of applications and documents to be lodged with the SC are as specified on the SC’s website; 


• new paragraphs 19.03B and 19.03C have been introduced to replace paragraphs 1 and 2 respectively of Appendix IV of Schedule D; 


• paragraph 19.06A has been amended so that the submission of the annual report of the REIT to the SC must be made in a manner specified on the SC’s website; 


• paragraph 19.10 has been amended to state that all submissions to the SC must be made in a manner specified on the SC’s website unless otherwise specified in the Guidelines; 


• paragraphs 21.01 and 21.03 have been amended so that all notifications, documents and submissions specified in those paragraphs that are to be made or submitted to the SC must be made or submitted in a manner specified on the SC’s website unless otherwise specified in the Guidelines; and 


• paragraph 21.04 which sets out the address to which submissions are to be made has been deleted as a consequence of the requirement for submissions to be made online. 

1. paragraph 9.44(1) has been amended to require the management company of a REIT to announce to the Exchange an interim financial report prepared on a quarterly basis (including the fourth quarter) within two months from the end of each quarter of the REIT’s financial year; and 


2. paragraph 9.45(1) has been amended to require the management company to issue the annual report of the REIT and forward the same to the Exchange and unit holders of the REIT within four months (instead of two months) after the end of the REIT’s financial year.