ASX real estate investment trusts (REITs) provide an interesting option for investors who don't want to choose between shares vs. property.
Essentially, REITs are bricks and mortar in the form of an ASX equity. Neat, huh?
However, the ASX REITs provide a different type of exposure to property than Australian residential housing.
Most are invested in commercial and industrial property, and their assets are all over the world.
They include data centres, offices, malls, and specialist facilities like medical and child care centres.
Only a few ASX REITs are invested in Australian residential real estate.
They are typically apartment developers and managers like Mirvac Group (ASX: MGR) or seniors and aged care village developers and managers, such as Lifestyle Communities Ltd (ASX: LIC).
If you're considering an investment in shares vs. property and ASX REITs are in the mix, the following data may interest you.
Let's take a look at the 12-month returns of ASX REITs vs. ordinary Australian residential property in 2024.
ASX REITs vs. homes: Which delivered better returns overall?
ASX REITs delivered stronger returns than residential housing last year.
The S&P/ASX 200 A-REIT Index (ASX: XPJ) delivered capital growth of 12.36% and total gross returns (that's growth plus distributions or dividends) of 16.31% in 2024.
By comparison, Australian dwellings (that's all types of properties combined) delivered capital growth of 4.9% and total returns (including weekly rents) of 8.9%, according to CoreLogic data.
We can break that down further to look at houses vs. apartments.
Houses recorded capital growth of 5.2% and total returns of 9%.
Apartments (grouped together with other strata-titled properties like townhouses) had growth of 3.6% and total returns of 8.5%.
Shares vs. property: Now to the specifics…
It's important to point out that just as each ASX REIT is different, so are our residential housing markets.
If we break down the property data, we see a significant divergence in performance between the states and territories last year.
In a nutshell, Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland were hot, and the rest were not.
Check out this table showing how house prices changed over 2024 in each of the cities and regions.
| Rank | Property market | Median house price | 12-month price change |
| 1 | Perth | $847,518 | 18.7% |
| 2 | Regional Western Australia | $570,839 | 16% |
| 3 | Regional South Australia | $463,754 | 12.6% |
| 4 | Adelaide | $866,327 | 12.5% |
| 5 | Regional Queensland | $705,366 | 10.8% |
| 6 | Brisbane | $977,575 | 10.2% |
| 7 | Regional Tasmania | $545,090 | 3.4% |
| 8 | Regional New South Wales | $775,378 | 3.2% |
| 9 | Sydney | $1,470,625 | 2.5% |
| 10 | Darwin | $586,699 | 1.4% |
| 11 | Canberra | $965,910 | 0.4% |
| 12 | Hobart | $693,924 | (0.5%) |
| 13 | Regional Northern Territory | $421,601 | (2.5%) |
| 14 | Regional Victoria | $600,504 | (2.7%) |
| 15 | Melbourne | $917,616 | (2.9%) |
Source: CoreLogic
Now check out the share price growth of the top five ASX REITs by market capitalisation last year.
As you can see, there is a major divergence in share price growth between the five biggest ASX REITs.
