New Japanese REIT ETF

Northern Trust is launching the first Japanese REIT ETF to be based upon the Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index.

The NETS Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index Fund (JRE) launched on Monday, and brings the NETS total to 16. Six others within the NETS family are going through the regulatory process, reports Eric Rosenbaum for Index Universe.

The introduction of this ETF is a sign of the new direction that the Northern Trust Bank is pushing into. So far, their main ETF interest has been within single-country equity funds. The Japanese REIT market is a large-scale market, representing 10% of all the global real estate investment opportunities.

So far, transactions in Japan have grown 11% for the first half of this year, and Tokyo is one of the leading office property city sales so far, after the United States at $12.6 billion in sales. JRE is listed on the NYSE Arca.

Comments

[Larry House:]

Part of me thinks this is a sure sign that the real estate problems of the world are heading to Japan. The launch of the new ETF is intended to get the money before the Japanese real estate market heads down.

2008 Sep 10 03:41 PM