SGX REIT Data- As at 16 October 2026 Closing- Quick Reflection.

Hi Folks, welcome back to Investment Income for Life. This week I did something a little different. I got AI to help me compute a forward distribution yield for every SGX-listed REIT and stapled trust, all 39 of them, using closing prices as at Friday, 16 October 2026. The method is simple: take the latest routine distribution, annualise it (x2 for half-yearly payers, x4 for quarterly payers), and divide by the unit price. The key tweak: I told it to ignore any advanced distributions paid out before a rights issue or preferential offering for an acquisition, as well as one-off gains. Those payouts tend to distort the numbers, so stripping them out normalises the yield for sanity. Let's dive in.

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1. The Big Picture
Across the 39 counters (excluding those not paying distributions), the average forward yield works out to 7.37% and the median to 6.92%. That is a very decent income stream for a basket of hard assets.

But the average hides a very wide spread. At one end, leaving aside BHG Retail REIT's token 0.52%, Parkway Life REIT yields just 4.37%. At the other, Sasseur REIT and ESR REIT are both above 11%. As always, the yield tells you as much about the market's fears as it does about the income.

2. The "Quality Premium" Club
Only six REITs are trading above their NAV and the notable ones as follow:

- Parkway Life REIT: +56.0% premium, 4.37% yield

- Keppel DC REIT: +19.7% premium, 5.52% yield

- Mapletree Industrial Trust: +9.8% premium, 6.95% yield (Note: MIT is in trouble over its North America data centres that are old school kind and unable to support the current in demand hyperscaler type)

- CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust: +3.7% premium, 5.40% yield

These are the names the market trusts: strong sponsors, resilient sectors (healthcare, data centres, Singapore industrial and retail) and a track record of steady DPU. You pay up for that peace of mind, and the yield is lower as a result. The other 32 counters with a stated NAV are all trading at a discount.

3. The Double-Digit Yielders
Five REITs are offering 10% or more on a forward basis:

- Sasseur REIT: 11.22% (Retail, China outlet malls)

- ESR REIT: 11.14% (Industrial, based on core DPU)

- First REIT: 10.65% (Healthcare, Indonesia hospitals)

- United Hampshire US REIT: 10.16% (Retail, US grocery-anchored)

- Elite UK REIT: 10.00% (Commercial, UK government-leased offices)

Hot on their heels are Daiwa House Logistics Trust (9.33%), CapitaLand India Trust (9.09%) and NTT DC REIT (9.04%). Most of these carry some form of currency, geographic or tenant concentration risk, which is why the market demands a higher yield to hold them.

4. The 70%+ Discount Graveyard: KORE, MUST and Prime
Now for the most interesting part of the table. The three US office REITs are trading at eye-watering discounts to book value:

- Manulife US REIT (MUST): -83.2% discount, distributions still suspended

- KORE US REIT: -79.1% discount, 5.48% yield

- Prime US REIT: -78.5% discount, 8.77% yield

These REITs imploded post COVID as work from home hollowed out demand for US offices. Occupancy fell, valuations got slashed, gearing went up and distributions were cut or suspended to preserve cash. I lost 1 arm and 2 legs holding all 3 of them previously as they held up well during COVID period...but thereafter, everyone knows what happened. When the market prices a REIT at 20 cents on the dollar of NAV, it is basically saying it does not believe the NAV.

I am not sure whether there are still many "value hunters" investing and holding them. Their unit prices have been in the doldrums for many years already, and every "this is the bottom" call so far has been premature. A deep discount on its own is not a margin of safety if the NAV keeps getting written down. For me, these remain a watch-from-the-sidelines group until there is clear evidence that office leasing in the US markets has turned.

5. United Hampshire US REIT: The One That Caught My Eye
United Hampshire US REIT ("UHREIT") looks very interesting. At US$0.425, it trades at a 41.8% discount to its NAV of US$0.73, and its 1H26 DPU of 2.16 US cents annualises to 4.32 US cents, a forward yield of 10.16% per annum.

Unlike the US office trio, UHREIT's grocery-anchored and necessity-based retail centres have held up far better. But as usual, the high yield reflects real uncertainty over the distributions, including:

- US interest rates staying higher for longer, which pushes up borrowing costs and weighs on valuations

- A depreciating USD against the SGD, which erodes returns for Singapore-based investors

- Potential changes to US withholding tax rules in an unpredictable policy environment under the current US administration

- Sponsors being unable to come to the rescue during REIT financial crisis, as the Trust Deed places constraints on how much they can increase their unitholdings before the REIT-Taxation vehicle breakdowns.

Maybe I will do a deeper review of UHREIT in another post when I have the time.

6. Parting Thoughts
- Yield is the price of uncertainty. The higher it goes, the harder you need to look at gearing, interest cover, currency and refinancing risk.

- A big discount to NAV is only cheap if the NAV is real. The US office REITs are the clearest reminder of that.

- The blue-chip S-REITs (CICT, CLAR, MIT, MLT, FCT) are yielding roughly 5.4% to 7.0%. Not spectacular, but steady, and they form the core of an income portfolio for many of us.

Anyway, personally for me, I am not in a hurry to go down big on SREITs, as I think more rate hikes are coming which should keep SREITs price depressed for a long time. 

Ok folks, that's all from me today. Have a great weekend ahead!

Disclaimer:
The forward yields above are my own simple computations based on the latest routine distribution and the closing price on 16 October 2026. Actual future distributions may be higher or lower. This post is for information and sharing only and is not investment advice. Please do your own due diligence before investing.