Thomson Reuters has added two new indices to its suite of real estate benchmarks developed in partnership with index specialist Global Property Research (GPR) and regional trade body Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA).

Thomson Reuters has added two new investable indices to Asia Pacific real estate benchmark suite.

The Thomson Reuters GPR/APREA Investable 100 Index and Thomson Reuters GPR/APREA Investable REIT 100 Index track the performance of large, liquid developed and emerging market-focused property developers and REITs, respectively.

The indices are based on the total return of property stocks and include the top 100 tradeable stocks in the Asia Pacific region, weighted by free-float market capitalisation.

The indices cover more than 75% of the total market capitalisation of the Thomson Reuters GPR/APREA composite index family and remain highly diversified, but avoid holding companies with higher transaction costs. They have been designed to be suitable as both underlyings for index-linked investment products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and as benchmarks for actively managed funds.

Commenting on the launch, Jason du Preez, head of indices at Thomson Reuters, said: “With continued interest in Asia Pacific Real Estate index products for benchmarking and investment product development, we are delighted to strengthen our collaboration with GPR and APREA. Our first release has already been very well received and we are confident that the new investable indices reflect the holdings of many Asia Pacific property investors.”

Lim Swe Guan, Chairman of APREA, added: “The launch of the TR/GPR/APREA Investable Indices marks another milestone in our quest to provide robust benchmarking tools for the industry. Passive funds can invest in the indices, representing the top 100 property companies and top 100 REITs respectively in Asia Pacific, and active funds can demonstrate their value add through selecting stocks that outperform the particular index.”

Thomson Reuters, GPR and APREA announced their collaboration in January 2013.