After being on the backburner for over 7 yrs, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has released draft rules for mutual funds real estate schemes, bringing a lot of relief to the MF industry. SEBI has given authorization to two types of real estate funds.
While the first group is of real estate MFs (REMF), and the other group is Real estate investment trusts or REITS. REMF will spend in real estate projects and mortgage-backed securities. These will be closed-ended funds, listed on the exchanges. As their net asset values will be declared daily, investors will have the choice to exit any day.