SS&C Blog

BLOGS. May 18, 2023

Know Your REITs: The Evolution of Non-Traded REITs

While real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been around for decades, they continue to evolve in response to regulatory changes and investor preferences. On their initial introduction, publicly-traded REITs were governed by the SEC and subject to significant regulatory oversight. Following the 1986 Tax Reform Act, non-traded REITs emerged, which can be structured at a fixed share price for the duration of a continuous offering or as a finite life product. Those initial non-traded finite life REITs weren’t popular for a variety of reasons, including high upfront fee loads, the illiquidity of the closed-end structure and lack of transparency. An effort to address these concerns paved the way for a new alternative product.