Recently, Singapore’s Roboadvisor Syfe has just announced the launch of their new real estate portfolio.

As the name suggest, with the new Syfe REIT+, you get to invest in a basket of REITs in Singapore.

The portfolio also combines Singapore listed REITs and Singapore Government Bonds and rebalances both the composition based on market sentiments.

For example, during good market condition, Syfe will auto rebalance the portfolio such that there is a higher proportion of REIT and a lower proportion of bond.

Here’s a look at the Syfe REIT+ composition breakdown: 

At first glance, the Syfe REIT+ portfolio looks really enticing and sounds somewhat too good to be true!

With just a fraction of cost from as low as S$100, you can get access to all the high quality Reits in Singapore, such as Ascendas REIT, Keppel DC REIT, Mapletree Logistics / Industrial Trust and more. Investing via Syfe means you dont have to pay any additional transaction fees or CDP fees as the stocks will be hold as a custodian stocks for you.

Individually, these counters are trading at high PEs now and you will have to fork out a lot of money to own all these REITs. To buy all these individual stocks, you will have to pay the individual stock transaction fees and CDP fees. These fees will definitely add up and will not make sense for small positions of S$1000 – S$3000. I’ve previously done a calculation for the fees here.

Also Read: What Is The Ideal Stock Amount To Buy For The Brokerage Fees To Make Sense

So from a fees perspective, you will end up saving a lot just by buying these REITs via Syfe REIT+.

Returns wise, here are the projected 15 year returns provided by Syfe REIT+

The returns are also in the range of 6 – 10% IRR for a 15 year forward looking projection – and that sounds really attractive!

When I compared the returns to the global equity portfolio, the Syfe REIT+ is projected to also provide almost similar returns as the global equity portfolio, and this gave me quite a shock – Shouldn’t the global equity portfolio provide a higher return since they are a higher risk instrument and comes with more downside risk? 

For context, here’s the projected returns for the Syfe Global Equity portfolio with 25% downside risk:

The most likely returns for the global equity is at S$321,164 while it is S$315,874 returns for the Syfe REIT+ portfolio!

There are other articles that says that actually REIT as a investment class is behaving more like equities now since they are providing equity-like returns, and most REITs in Singapore has been benefitting from a low interest environment over the past few years. Hence we are seeing REIT as attractive investment options in Singapore. 

Knowing that, will we shift our monthly contribution from Syfe global equity to Syfe REIT+?

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure.

I do manage my own portfolio of REITs at this point, and can definitely use more global diversification, hence I started a RSP into Syfe’s global equity portfolio. 

While the new Syfe REIT+ provides a really attractive alternative for me to continue my exposure to Singapore’s REIT market, I guess for now it makes more sense to continue my RSP into the global equity portfolio as I have a relatively high exposure to Singapore equities and REITs. 

Here’s a look at my current portfolio composition:

Cash	18.21%
Pension Fund	36.03%
Bond	1.64%
Global Equities	13.85%
SG Equities & REITS	27.03%
Alternatives	2.60%
Syfe	0.65%

However, if you are looking to get really high quality Singapore REITs at a low cost, you should definitely check out Syfe REIT+. If I don’t already own some of the REITs in the Syfe REIT+ portfolio, I would definitely start a RSP into the new Syfe REIT+ portfolio.

If you do sign up for Syfe, do use my Syfe Referral Code: SRP6X8B8Y and you will receive S$50 when you invest with Syfe.

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