Listed and Non-listed REITs

Publicly available Real Estate Investment Trusts come in two flavors: listed, and non-listed. The difference between the two is simple, yet important. Listed REITs trade on exchange while non-listed RETS do not. Two non-listed REITs—Cole Capital and KBS—asked us to investigate differences in costs between the two REIT vehicles. In this brief we address the fundamental question: When an investor invests a dollar in new shares on any REIT, listed or on-listed, how much of that dollar flows through to a real estate investment? We then test whether there is a statistical difference in the net received by investors.