不動産投資信託制度 導入의 妥當性에 관한 硏九

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

REIT is essentially a corporation or business trust that combines the capital of many investors to acquire or provide financing for all forms of real estate. REIT serves much as a mutual fund for real estate in that retail investors obtain the benefit of a diversified portfolio under professional management. Its shares are freely traded, often on a major stock exchange.
REIT is a company that buys, develops, manages and sells real estate
assets. REIT allow participants to invest in a professionally-managed portfolio
of real estate properties. REIT qualify as pass-through entities, companies
who are able distribute the majority of income cash flows to investors without
taxation at the corporate level (providing that certain conditions are met). As
pass-through entities whose main function is to pass profits on to investors, a
REIT's business activities are generally restricted to the generation of
property rental income. Another major advantage of REIT investment is its
liquidity (ease of liquidation of assets into cash), as compared to traditional
private real estate ownership which is not very easy to liquidate. One reason
for the liquid nature of REIT investments is that its shares are primarily
traded on major exchanges, making it easier to buy and sell REIT
assets/shares than to buy and sell properties in private markets.
In addition to avoiding double taxation and requiring a small minimum
investment, REITs also offer investors:
Current income : usually stable and often provides an attractive return
Professional management : REIT managers are skilled, experienced real
estate professionals
Portfolio diversification : minimizes risk
Performance Monitoring : a REIT's performance is monitored on a
regular basis by independent directors of the REIT, independent analysts,
independent auditors, and the business and financial media. This scrutiny
provides the investor with a measure of protection and more than one
barometer of the REIT's financial condition.

In order for a corporation or trust to qualify as a REIT, it must comply
with certain provisions within the Internal Revenue Code. As required by the
Tax Code, a REIT must :
be a corporation, business trust or similar associations;
be managed by a board of directors or trustees;
have shares that are fully transferable;
have a minimum of 100 shareholders;
have no more than 50 percent of the shares held by five or fewer
individuals during the last half of each taxable year;
invest at least 75 percent of the total assets in real estate assets;
derive at least 75 percent of gross income from rents from real property,
or interest on mortgages on real property
No more than 30% of gross income can come from the sale of real
property held for less than four years
pay dividends of at least 95 percent of REIT's taxable income.

The REIT industry has a diverse profile, which offers many attractive
opportunities to investors. REIT industry analysts often classify REITs in one
of three investment approaches : Equity REITs, Mortgage REITs, and Hybrid
REITs.
There are over 300 REITs operating in the United States today. Their
assets total over $160 billion. Over 70 percent of these trades on the national
stock exchanges : ①New York Stock Exchange - 169 REITs, ②American
Stock Exchange - 29 REITs, ③NASDAQ National Market System - 17
REITs.

REIT employ professional management, individuals who are hired and
periodically reviewed by the REIT's board of directors. REIT managers are
selected based upon their extensive real estate background and expertise.
REIT can be either internally managed or externally advised.
REIT were created to provide investors with the opportunity to participate
in the benefits of ownership of larger-scale commercial real estate or lending
mortgage, and receive an enhanced return, because the income is not taxed at
the REIT entity level. This means that a diverse range of investors can
realize investment opportunities otherwise available only to those with larger
resources.
The introduction of REIT can globally standardize our real estate investment
market, improve the financial structure of the firms which are in depression
under the IMF-supported regime and secure the transparency of price for real
estate in addition to securing the new route of funds.
Therefore, this study contends that it is necessary to enact the new 'REIT
ACT' based on the existing 'Securities Investment Company Act' so as to
introduce the REIT system into KOREA.
And there should be the financial commodity and competitiveness(yield) of
the capital market such as stocks, bonds, deposits and the like in introducing
the REIT system into KOREA. As a result of making the feasibility study of
its introduction, it was estimated in this study that the rate of operating
profits of real estate(office building) is 4.7%-7.1% under the current system
(on the basis of REIT). But the somewhat high rate of operating profits was
estimated to be 6.08%-8.47% in case the acquisition-related tax was exempted
at 100%.
Consequently, the active tax incentive in the tax system related to real
estate is needs to introduce the large-scale REIT system. And to construct
the infrastructure of the real estate market, it is very urgent to apply the
'capitalization approach' as the valuation method, establish the information
disclosure system of real estate, raise the function of the [credit rating agenc
y] for real estate and development planning, draw up the [real estate index]
and provide institutional support for [asset management] & [real estate
consulting] business.