New Delhi, April 16 -- While Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have already simplified property investment in India, a distinction is now emerging between the traditional 'large' REITs and the recently regulated Small and Medium REITs (SM REITs).

To explain the difference in simple terms, standard REITs typically function like large mutual funds for real estate, pooling thousands of crores to manage massive IT parks and integrated townships. In contrast, SM REITs allow investors to target specific, high-quality assets, such as a single-premium office building, a specialised medical centre, or high-street retail space, valued between Rs.50 crore and Rs.500 crore.

This effectively means that instead of owning a small portion of a broa...