Last week, the public REITs secondary market continued to recover, with the earlier weak momentum showing marginal improvement. Data from Guosen Securities showed that the CSI REITs Index rose 0.4% during the week, with all types of REITs except commercial real estate posting gains.

According to Wind data, among the 89 listed public REITs products, 68 recorded week-on-week gains. The top three gainers were China Merchants Bank LianDong Science and Technology Innovation REIT, Bank of China Sinotrans Warehousing and Logistics REIT, and Hua'an Zhangjiang Industrial Park REIT, which rose 3.74%, 3.60%, and 3.37% respectively during the week.

The number of products that declined week-on-week fell to 21, with the three biggest decliners being Guojin China Railway Construction Highway REIT, Chuangjin Hexin Beijing State-owned Capital Company REIT, and Huaxia Hangzhou Heda High-Tech Industrial Park REIT, which fell 2.39%, 1.53%, and 1.52% respectively.

On the policy and industry front, on September 20, Huaxia China Resources Energy REIT and Great Wall Huaneng Coal-Fired Power REIT were officially approved, becoming the first batch of coal power REITs to be launched nationwide. On September 21, the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) released the "Compilation of Institutional Rules for Publicly Offered Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)."

Secondary market continues to recover

Last week, the public REITs secondary market continued to recover. As of September 24, the CSI REITs (close) index stood at 699.3 points, up 0.4% week-on-week; the CSI REITs total return index stood at 948.85 points, up 0.56% week-on-week.

Data from Shenwan Hongyuan Securities showed that by project attribute, property rights REITs rose 0.67% last week, while concession rights REITs rose 0.53%. By asset type, data centers (+2.78%), affordable housing (+1.00%), energy (+0.95%), and environmental protection and water services (+0.77%) sectors performed relatively well.

In terms of individual products, among the 89 listed public REITs products, 68 recorded week-on-week gains. The top three gainers were China Merchants Bank LianDong Science and Technology Innovation REIT, Bank of China Sinotrans Warehousing and Logistics REIT, and Hua'an Zhangjiang Industrial Park REIT, which rose 3.74%, 3.60%, and 3.37% respectively during the week. The top ten gainers of public REITs last week on a week-on-week basis, 21 products declined, with the three biggest decliners being Guojin China Railway Construction Highway REIT, Chuangjin Hexin Beijing State-owned Capital Company REIT, and Huaxia Hangzhou Heda High-Tech Industrial Park REIT, which fell 2.39%, 1.53%, and 1.52% respectively. The top ten decliners of public REITs last week.

In terms of trading volume and turnover rate, data from Tianfeng Securities showed that last week's total REITs turnover (MA5) was 383 million yuan, up 5.0% week-on-week. Property rights and operating rights turnover (MA5) were 257 million yuan and 125 million yuan respectively, changing by 4.8% and 5.4% compared with the previous week.

Breaking it down, the turnover of park infrastructure, energy infrastructure, warehousing and logistics, affordable rental housing, municipal environmental protection, transportation infrastructure, consumer infrastructure, data center infrastructure, and commercial real estate REITs last week were 55 million yuan, 38 million yuan, 52 million yuan, 32 million yuan, 18 million yuan, 69 million yuan, 74 million yuan, 28 million yuan, and 17 million yuan respectively, changing by -12.9%, -12.0%, -5.9%, 54.4%, 20.0%, 14.0%, 11.7%, 6.9%, and 14.8% compared with the previous week. Among them, the REITs type with the largest turnover during the week was consumer infrastructure, accounting for 19.4%.

Multiple important policy and industry developments

Last week also saw several important policy and industry developments. First, on September 20, Huaxia China Resources Power Coal-Fired Power REIT and Great Wall Huaneng Coal-Fired Power REIT had their registrations take effect. These are the market's first batch of coal power asset public REITs, with both products filed on May 6 and accepted on May 12.

Tianfeng Securities noted that on June 9, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a review inquiry letter to China Resources, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued feedback opinions to Huaneng; on September 20, both products received registration approval documents on the same day. Based on the approved draft, China Resources' net cash flow distribution rates for 2026 and 2027 are 7.85% and 7.79% respectively. For Huaneng, because the fund began operating in April 2026, the distribution rate from April to December is 5.82%, corresponding to a distributable amount of 176 million yuan; the full-year distribution rate for 2027 is 8.00%, corresponding to a distributable amount of 241 million yuan, with a full-cycle IRR of 5.92%.

Second, the filing and review of multiple projects accelerated. In terms of project progress, in addition to the first two coal-fired power public REITs, last week China Merchants Asset Management China Merchants Shekou Closed-End Commercial Real Estate REIT also had its registration take effect. In addition, Harvest Taoyi Consumer Closed-End Infrastructure REIT received regulatory feedback opinions, and four projects including Guotai Haitong Xinyi Energy New Energy Closed-End Infrastructure REIT, Huaxia Century Jinyuan Closed-End Commercial Real Estate REIT, Huaxia Kaihua Closed-End Commercial Real Estate REIT, and China Universal Shunlian Closed-End Commercial Real Estate REIT were accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Data from Kailuan Securities also showed that currently 50 REITs funds are waiting to be listed, and 13 REITs funds are waiting for follow-on offerings. Among the first-batch REITs awaiting listing, commercial real estate REITs number 28, with rich underlying asset types including commercial complexes, offices (including supporting commercial space and parking spaces), retail commercial properties (outlet malls, shopping centers), and hotels. The second batch of six commercial real estate REITs has received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, covering CapitaLand, Poly, Lujiazui, Beijing State-owned Capital, and others, with business formats expanded to hotels and complexes, and the overall market continues to expand.

In addition, on September 21, AMAC released the "Compilation of Institutional Rules for Publicly Offered Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)," systematically organizing the public REITs business rules and regulations effective as of August 2026, including incorporating institutional documents related to commercial real estate REITs and updating and revising existing rules. In the view of some industry insiders, this marks the REITs market moving from pilot exploration toward institutional finalization.