Study Of Real Estate Investment Trust The Legal System

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) is both an institutional arrangement and innovative financial investment instrument, with the combination of real estate and finance. It was initially derived from the Unites States and established by its Internal Revenue Code of 1960, of whose purpose was to provide the access for the vast of small and medium investors to real estate industry and to gain profit from their investment. This institution not only met the investment demand of individual investors, but also offered a huge amount of funds to the real estate industry of the United States. After several decades of development and evolution, more and more countries and regions worldwide has recognized the characteristics and institutional advantages of REITs and established, one after another, the REITs system of different operation mode by learning from the practical experience of the United States as well as combining with their respective conditions and legal environment. At the time that many Asian countries and regions started to set up the institution after 2000, the scholars from all circles in our country had also noticed this hot issue and launched a fierce discussion. But unfortunately, so far we have not seen the formal establishment of REITs. Among other things, the major reason is that the legal environment in our countries currently is not very perfect to introduce such institution. Furthermore, China now is under the control of real estate, any institutional arrangement relating to real estate appears to be sensitive, which leads to the delay of the Chinese REITs again.This paper intends to study on the legal system of REITs in connection with China's real situation. There are totally four chapters in this paper. Chapter One is an overview of the basic theory of the Real Estate Investment Trusts, which gives the concept of REITs and analyzes the differences between REITs and other relevant terms or concepts, and also introduces the classifications, characteristics and advantages of REITs.Chapter Two gives an analysis of the legal relationships of the Real Estate Investment Trusts and the basic legal relationship of trust containing in such institution from the view of general trust and business trust. In addition, such analysis is also given in accordance with different forms of organization of the Real Estate Investment Trusts.Chapter Three points out the legal obstacles to introduce, establish and develop the Real Estate Invest Trusts, focusing on the existing legal framework in China.Chapter Four puts forward some proposals and ideas to set up and develop the Real Estate Investment Trusts in our country.