REIT, InvIT mop-ups shoot up 5-fold to over Rs 39,000 crore in FY24: Economic Survey

The capital markets regulator has been making interventions to promote these two asset classes.

Real-estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) have raised Rs 39,024 crore in FY24, five times what they had raised a year back, according to the Economic Survey.

The survey was released on July 22, a day before the announcement of the Union Budget for 2024-25.

The increase in funds raised was "supported by the government's thrust on infrastructure development", the survey stated.

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The capital markets regulator has been making interventions to promote these two asset classes such as approving the framework for small and medium REITs, and ease of doing business measures such as reduction of the payment distribution timeline to investors from 15 days to five working days.

In March 2024, at the News18 Rising India Summit, the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) called REITs one of her "favourite products for the future". Madhabi Puri Buch said that REITs, Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT), and municipal bonds combined will become as big as India's equity markets in the next 10-15 years.

The Economic Survey report also took note of the growth of the public debt market. "The corporate debt market in India is going from strength to strength. During FY24, the value of corporate bond issuances increased to Rs 8.6 lakh crore from Rs 7.6 lakh crore during the previous financial year. The number of corporate bonds public issues in FY24 was the highest for any financial year so far, with the amount raised (Rs 19,167 crore) at a four-year high."

Also read: Speculative trading has no place in a developing country like India: Economic Survey

The Survey report also raised concerns around the speculative nature of derivatives trading in the Indian market. It even stated that such trading has "no place in a developing country" such as India.

"All stakeholders must ensure that capital markets play their theoretically assigned role of directing savings to their most productive investments. It is not just in the national interest. It is an act of self-interest, too," it said.