To The Moon

In the world of Singapore Real Estate Investment Trusts (S-REITs), the narrative has long been dominated by institutional “smart money.” However, a closer look at retail capital flows between 2024 and 2025 reveals a profound shift in mindset.

What retail investors are refusing to buy today tells a far more compelling story than what they are actually holding. 

From “Buying Cheap” to “Buying Safe”

The data points to a retail investor base that has clearly matured after several years of volatility. Published market figures show a clear divergence between retail and institutional behaviour across the top 10 S-REITs.

The Great Divide: 2024 vs. 2025

In 2024, retail investors injected approximately S$1.6 billion into S-REITs, attempting to catch a falling knife as higher interest rates compressed valuations. By 2025, even as prices began to recover, retail investors remained net buyers—albeit more selectively—with inflows of roughly S$1.0 billion. $Mapletree Log Tr(M44U.SI)$ $CapLand Ascendas REIT(A17U.SI)$ $Mapletree Ind Tr(ME8U.SI)$ $NTT DC REIT USD(NTDU.SI)$ $CapLand Ascott T(HMN.SI)$  

Top 10 Retail Inflow

Crucially, while institutional investors were net sellers in both years, retail capital stayed invested—but rewrote the rules of engagement.

Retail investors buying mindset

The Filter: Familiarity, Liquidity, and Resilience

At first glance, the REITs attracting the strongest retail inflows appear unsurprising: large-cap, government-linked, and highly familiar names. The true signal, however, lies in what is absent from retail portfolios.

What Retail Investors Are Avoiding

• Pure Foreign-Asset REITs Years of FX volatility, overseas asset write-downs, and distribution cuts have visibly dampened appetite for fully foreign portfolios.

• Illiquid Small-Cap REITs REITs with market capitalisations below S$1 billion—even those offering high headline yields—are increasingly bypassed. Liquidity and exit optionality now outweigh marginal yield enhancement.

• Complex Financial Engineering Over-leveraged or “cleverly structured” REITs are being met with growing scepticism rather than enthusiasm.

The “Data Centre” Exception

Data Centre REITs remain the notable outlier. Despite their technical complexity, they benefit from a powerful structural narrative—AI adoption, cloud computing, and digitalisation—that retail investors can easily understand and trust.

The Liquidity Problem: A Symptom of Outdated Investor Relations

Persistently low trading liquidity among smaller REITs is often a symptom of outdated Investor Relations (IR) strategies. Many sub-scale REITs remain invisible to institutions due to size constraints, yet management teams continue to focus almost exclusively on Non-Deal Roadshows (NDRs) targeting institutional investors.

Liquidity cannot improve if retail investors are neglected. Expecting different outcomes while maintaining the same exclusionary engagement habits is unrealistic. The data is clear: retail investors are now the marginal liquidity providers.

The Long Game of Retail Engagement

Retail engagement requires significantly more effort and consistency than institutional pitching. Results are rarely immediate. However, experience shows that a clear communications roadmap—combined with persistence and conviction—pays dividends.

Engaged retail investors often evolve into long-term brand advocates, amplifying a REIT’s message organically through word-of-mouth. This grassroots support system is something institutional capital simply cannot replicate.

Why the Retail Mindset Shifted

Unlike institutional desks, retail investors lack easy access to currency hedging tools and cannot rotate out of multi-million-dollar positions in a single trading session. Hard-earned experience has taught them that:

1. Refinancing stress is real and immediate

2. Rights issues can be deeply dilutive if unprepared

3. Distribution cuts inflict more damage than short-term price volatility

As a result, retail investors are now filtering decisively for stability over yield. A dependable 5% distribution yield from a Singapore-based industrial heavyweight is preferred over a volatile 8% yield from a foreign office portfolio.

The Wake-Up Call for REIT Managers

For REIT managers who have historically prioritised institutional flows, this shift should serve as a wake-up call. Retail capital is not “dumb money.” It is sticky capital—providing liquidity depth and valuation anchors during periods of market stress.

The New Retail Manifesto

To attract today’s retail investor, REIT managers must:

• Neutralise FX Risk Address currency exposure transparently rather than glossing over it.

• Prioritise Liquidity Improve free float and maintain consistent market engagement.

• Simplify the Story Avoid unnecessary financial complexity.

• Build Trust Communicate risks honestly and proactively, not defensively.

Kenny Loh is a distinguished MAS Private Wealth Advisor with a specialization in holistic investment planning and estate management. He excels in assisting clients to grow their investment capital and establish passive income streams for retirement. Kenny also facilitates tax-efficient portfolio transfers to beneficiaries, ensuring tax-efficient capital appreciation through risk mitigation approaches and optimized wealth transfer through strategic asset structuring.

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