The price is Reit

Property loans written by the nation's banks have helped plummet the country into financial despair, and the debate continues to rage on how to clean up the financial world's image. However, one solution does lend itself to the drawing board in the form of real estate investment trusts...

With significant chunks of the UK banking sector still on life support – despite the much-vaunted taxpayer bailouts of recent months – debate continues to rage over the degree to which the nation’s banks have come clean about the bad loans they have on their books. The commercial property sector has been hit harder than most but, here at least, tentative moves are afoot that could eventually pave the way for banks to clean up their dodgy ‘portfolios’ – more specifically through the use of real estate investment trusts (Reits). “Banks play an important societal role, but bad assets on ...