An Australian real estate investment trust (A-REIT) is a unitised portfolio of property assets, listed on a stock exchange, usually the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). In Australia, such investment structures were known as a listed property trust (LPT) prior to March 2008 but were renamed to be more consistent with international terms. Unit trusts of property assets which are not listed on a stock exchange are known as unlisted property trusts.
An A-REIT usually owns a portfolio of large properties, which, due to their size and value, cannot be bought by the average private investor. Thus, these large investments are broken up into units of smaller value that can be purchased by private investors, who become unit holders.
LPTs first emerged in the Australian sharemarket in the early 1970s. Around this time they were viewed as a substitute for direct property investing, with enhanced liquidity offered as they were listed. Despite a slow start, the LPT sector has grown rapidly. From less than $5 billion in the early 1990s, the sector reached a market capitalisation of $43.8 billion in August 2002.
As of July 2012 the Australian public real estate sector consists of a total market capitalization of almost €72 billion, accounting for 9.36% of the global real estate investment trust (REIT) market capitalization.The current top five A-REIT managers are Westfield Group with a market capitalization of €19 billion, Westfield Retail with a market capitalization of €7.8 billion, Stockland with a market capitalization of €6.3 billion, GPT Group with a market capitalization of €5.2 billion and the Goodman Group with a market capitalization of €5.1 billion.