PBIT organized REIT stakeholders conference

Lahore—With a view to create awareness about the concept of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to the potential investors, Punjab Board of Investment & Trade (PBIT) organized REIT Stake holder’s Conference here today.

Director General Projects PBIT Moazzam Hussain chaired the event. Speaking on this occasion he said that PBIT is actively promoting formation of new REIT structure and initiating new real estate projects. He said construction industry guides 40 other related industries like cement, steel, ceramics, pipes etc and RIET is the quickest way to achieve economic activity. Explaining this new idea he further said that REIT is a mutual fund that invests in real estate development projects and Punjab government has given extended fiscal incentives by lowering stamp duty for REITs to buy and sell property.

Punjab Board of Investment & Trade has been trusted with the responsibility of implementing REIT tax policy reform through Government of Punjab REIT offers multiple benefits to the economy such as it can bring transparency to real estate transactions, increase participation of general public in profitable real estate projects and kick start economic activities, eliminate housing backlog and provide quality living. REIT can bring standardization and best practices to the construction industry, efficiently channel Foreign Direct Investment and substantially increase government revenues.

It is with this objective that REIT Stake holder’s Conference is focused on recent incentives offered by the Government of Punjab, procedure, policy and regulatory framework for opening a REITS and to engage in a dialogue with all Stakeholders and to remove bottlenecks. The target market of this conference is comprised of Urban developers, investment banks and brokerage houses. Representatives of State Bank of Pakistan, HBL, SECP, Bahria Foundation, Tricon Developers, Arif Habib REIT Management, LDA, FDA, PHA and Izhar Group participated in the conference.