Dialogue with Wang Gang: Every Commercial Real Estate Professional Should Look at REITs

Why REITs matter now

Wang Gang (王刚), secretary-general of the China REITs Industry Alliance (中国REITs行业联盟), says commercial real estate professionals ignore REITs at their peril. The sector has moved from theory to scale in just over five years—what began with nine public REITs listing on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges in June 2021 has reportedly grown to 79 products with about ¥210 billion in aggregate market value. Fast growth, yes. But the bigger point for Wang: REITs are becoming an operational business, not just a financing wrapper.

Policy push and international context

Beijing has opened the taps further. Commercial-property REIT pilots—covering shopping malls, offices, hotels and apartments—were confirmed for formal trial in 2025, and regulators have said the goal is to turn REITs from a product into a market. It has been reported that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (证监会) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (上交所) are encouraging structures that can accept both domestic and qualified foreign limited partners via QFLP routes. That matters geopolitically: as US‑China tensions, sanctions and trade policy reshape cross‑border capital, China is signaling it wants deeper domestic markets that can also attract controlled foreign capital.

From external management to full enterprise

Wang points to an operational shortfall in many Chinese REITs today: “external management” models that outsource asset operations and lack internal leadership. He contrasts this with the US experience—recalling Sam Zell’s (who sold Equity Office Properties Trust before the 2007 crisis) evolution of REIT practice—where institutional actors pushed REITs to internalize teams for leasing, operations and capital management. Wang argues the “golden triangle” of buy/sell ability, asset operations and capital-structure management must be combined under accountable executives if investor returns are to improve.

Talent and market implications

So where will the CEOs and CFOs come from? Wang and industry groups are looking at private real‑estate funds and operators as the seedbed. Beijing’s private real‑estate fund pilot and industry feedback to regulators explicitly aim to enlarge the pipeline of assets that can be repackaged into public REITs. Reportedly, Wang believes China can overtake Singapore and Japan to become Asia’s largest—and the world’s second‑largest—REIT market if governance and talent catch up. The clock is ticking for commercial landlords, operators and fund managers: adapt, professionalize or risk being left on the sidelines.