INTRODUCTION REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) IN UZBEKISTAN: OPPORTUNITIES FOR ATTRACTING FORIGN INVESTMENT

Abstract

Uzbekistan's property and capital markets are developing, yet the financing of income-producing real estate remains heavily dependent on direct ownership, developer capital and bank lending. This article examines whether a real estate investment trust (REIT) framework could broaden the country's investor base and mobilise foreign portfolio capital for completed commercial properties. The study combines a structured review of five selected international articles with comparative institutional and legal analysis, official Uzbek market indicators and an explicitly hypothetical cash-flow model. The findings indicate that Uzbekistan has a partial legal starting point: the Law on Investment and Unit Funds (2015) already recognises immovable property as an investment asset, while the 2026 Tashkent International Financial Centre creates an additional avenue for developing internationally oriented financial services. Neither, on the evidence reviewed, automatically constitutes a fully operational listed-REIT regime. A pilot equity-REIT invested in independently valued, leased logistics, retail and service properties is proposed, subject to clarification of asset ownership, taxation, distribution, valuation and foreign-exchange rules. In an illustrative unleveraged USD 25 million portfolio, a 92% rent-collection assumption yields a 4.32% annual cash distribution on equity under the study's assumptions; lower occupancy materially reduces this result. The paper concludes that a phased REIT reform could complement existing investment channels, but capital inflows depend on legal certainty, disclosure quality, investible property supply and functioning secondary-market liquidity rather than on the REIT label itself.