The Tragic Fate of SREITs- Battered Down Time and Time Again Over Past 5 Years.

This is just a short post to ramble on SREITs which have always made up the bulk of my investment portfolios. The SREITs journey over the past 5 years have been nothing short of a major disaster. Since the 2020 COVID crisis, REITS prices have been hammered down non-stop. After COVID, too much money printing worldwide lead to inflation getting out of control and the US Federal Reserve started increasing interest rates which led to sudden spike in financing cost and borrowings/leverage ratio soaring. 

Just when everyone thought that the global inflation is under control and interest rates finally coming down, the megalomaniac and narcissitic Donald Trump kicked off the tariff war swhich seems to be the onset triggering off of a global recession. Many SREITs such as my favoruite Mapletree Industrial Trust ("MIT") is already at its 5 year low as at 8th April 2025. I am wondering how much will SREITs be further dropping this week given that China will be announcing its retaliatory measures to Trump's additional 50% tariff hike as China has mentioned that it will not be blackmailed into submission and will fight US tariffs to the very end. 

How does Donald Trump plan to make America great again when using artifical tariffs simply erodes America's industrial competitiveness? Also, for much of the products being manufactured, US does not have the competitive advantage. Today's news report that Trump's wishlist of moving back iPhone production to US will mean the cost of iphone going up from US$1,000 to US$3,500 per phone. Even if the tariff is now 100%, it will still be cheaper to import them. Consequentially, consumers back in US will still be bearing the brunt of the tariff being imposed. Focusing on US competitive advantage in its tech and financial services maybe better in the long term I thought.