Stock markets are in a tizzy, you have bond markets which is facing the heat, you have interest rates cycle, which is only hardening and right at the bang of all the turmoil, you have Blackstone and Embassy filling for REIT, the fist one of its kind in India.

CNBC-TV18's Manisha Natarajan caught up with Niranjan Hiranandani president of NAREDCO; Shobhit Agarwal, managing director and chief executive officer of Anarock Capital; Ram Yadav, chief executive officer of Edelweiss Real Estate Advisory Practice; Aston Peter Verwer, chief executive officer of APREA; Ashok Mohnani chairman of Ekta World and vice president of NAREDCO West and Neeraj Bansal, partner at KPMG, to find what are the expectations from the REIT, is the timing right and what kind of returns can be expected from it.

Hiranandani said, "You have to understand that the REIT is actually behind schedule. If you looked at the REIT ideas in to India, I think it should have come long ago, because lot of investors put in the money, but nobody bothered to actually re-encash it after they had invested into it. So, Blackstone probably was one of the earliest filers into the investment, so time comes when you really have to encash these investments and things like that. So, the timing doesn't depend only on the market scenario, but also the fact that they are ready to file. So, it's more about the investor looking at what the temperature of the market is."

"My view personally is looking at the other turbulence that you have REIT is a much more stable type of product. In turbulent times like this, especially where you have the volatility of the rupee, the stock markets are a little dicey in terms of what the futures are going to hold, I think it's an excellent time for a REIT, which is a much more stable product than what you would do with equity and other things," he added.

Agarwal said, "The timing of this REIT from foreign investor's perspective cannot be better. You are getting it at a good exchange rate. So, it's not a bad option, if foreign investors were to invest in it and I think, they will have the largest share of the pie. It's equally important to have pensioners, mutual funds and Indian FIIs participating in it. I think, it's a much awaited product. You can never time the market right, but it's never too late and it cannot be better that Blackstone is leading the first India REIT. I think the pedigree matters a lot and you cannot get better pedigree than this."

First Published:Sept 27, 2018 11:16 PM IST