REITs
For about ₹435 you can own one unit of Embassy Office Parks REIT and collect your share of the rent from office parks housing some of the largest companies in the world.
What a REIT actually is
A REIT is a listed trust that owns income-producing commercial property: office parks, malls, warehouses. The tenants sign long leases, typically 5 to 10 years, which makes the cash flow fairly predictable.
The numbers, as they stand
As of September 2026, Embassy trades around ₹435 a unit with a distribution yield near 5.5%, Mindspace around ₹498 yielding about 5.8%, Brookfield India around ₹343 yielding roughly 7.5%, and Nexus near 6%.
The tax part, which everyone skips
REIT distributions are not simple dividends.
Who they suit
REITs fit the investor who wants quarterly cash flow without owning property: retirees building an income layer, or a portfolio that already has its equity engine running and wants a diversifier that pays rent instead of hoping for multiples to expand.
For about ₹435 you can own one unit of Embassy Office Parks REIT and collect your share of the rent from office parks housing some of the largest companies in the world. That is the pitch of a REIT, and it is real: commercial real estate income, in India, without buying a flat, finding a tenant, or chasing rent.
What a REIT actually is
A REIT is a listed trust that owns income-producing commercial property: office parks, malls, warehouses. The tenants sign long leases, typically 5 to 10 years, which makes the cash flow fairly predictable. By regulation, the trust must distribute at least 90% of its net distributable cash flow to unit-holders, and in India the payouts arrive quarterly. Units trade on the exchange in lots of one, so the entry ticket is a few hundred rupees, not the lakhs people assume.
India has had listed REITs since 2019. The names to know: Embassy Office Parks and Mindspace Business Parks (offices), Nexus Select Trust (malls), and Brookfield India (offices). I compared the whole category against InvITs and physical property in my REIT vs InvIT vs real estate post; the short version is that the REIT is the only one of the three that is liquid, diversified, and cheap to enter.
The numbers, as they stand
As of September 2026, Embassy trades around ₹435 a unit with a distribution yield near 5.5%, Mindspace around ₹498 yielding about 5.8%, Brookfield India around ₹343 yielding roughly 7.5%, and Nexus near 6%. Those yields are lower than the 7 to 8% figures quoted a few years ago, because unit prices have risen. The yield is the product: a REIT is an income instrument, not a growth engine. The capital appreciation is a bonus, not the thesis.
The tax part, which everyone skips
REIT distributions are not simple dividends. Each payout splits into three components with different tax treatment: interest income, taxed at your slab rate; dividend income, also at slab rate; and return of capital, which is not taxed on receipt but reduces your cost basis, so it surfaces as a bigger capital gain when you eventually sell. Selling the units themselves is taxed like listed equity: 20% short-term, 12.5% long-term beyond 12 months. The after-tax yield in the 30% bracket is meaningfully below the headline number, so compare it against after-tax FD or debt fund returns, not against the headline.
Who they suit
REITs fit the investor who wants quarterly cash flow without owning property: retirees building an income layer, or a portfolio that already has its equity engine running and wants a diversifier that pays rent instead of hoping for multiples to expand. They do not fit someone chasing high growth, and they should not crowd out the equity SIP that does the real compounding in the allocation framework.
The simplest way to think about it: a REIT turns you into a landlord of Grade-A offices for the price of a dinner out, with none of the plumbing calls. What it cannot do is make you rich quickly. That is usually the sign that something is working as designed.