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The Real Estate delivery process entails the combination of construction resources to produce structures by which land-centred proprietary interests are held. One central ingredient in this process is finance upon which, every other requirement can be denominated. Walmsley (2007) posited, however, that the quantum of capital outlay required in real estate delivery is usually beyond the medium and low income earners in the society could afford. Therefore, various approaches had been fashioned to finance housing in Nigeria. The ‘modern’ approach involves sourcing from formal institutions including the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) as apex authority, Commercial banks, Merchant banks, specialised Development Banks, Pension Fund and Insurance Companies. There are also financing options from the informal sector, corporate bodies and developers or contractors. However, Nubi (undated) catalogued lots of constraints in accessing finance from these sectors. The several other identified sources, notwithstanding their suitability posture, had also made little impact on housing finance in Nigeria till date.

By its nature, real estate development is capital intensive just as the product enjoys long economic life span. These two, out of the several attributes of the real estate investment, make the product delivery system particularly susceptible to a specialised form of funding; large quantity, the amortisation of which can be spread over a reasonably long period of time. This calls for the availability of a sustainable pool of funds which enjoys long term repayment while new requests continue to be accessed. One investment strategy which can fit into this requirement, while at the same time reward the investors, is the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) vehicle.

Walsmley (2007) recognised REIT as a unit trust invested in real estate. It is essentially, a form of property securitisation (Newell and Fife, 1995). REITs can be publicly or privately held. Public REITs, however, are listed on the public stock exchange like shares of common stock in other companies.