A recent consultation paper put out by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) seeks, rightly, to amend and make up to date the norms and regulations pertaining to real estate investment trusts (REITs). The investment vehicles offer steady attractive returns and we do need to coagulate funding for much-needed investment in townships and built spaces. The Sebi paper seeks to broaden the definition of ‘real estate’ or ‘property’ to include hotels, hospitals, convention centres and other such rent-generating assets, notified as infrastructure by the finance ministry, which is unexceptionable. The proposal is also to prudentially and transparently liberalise REIT holdings in special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Real estate assets are usually held through multiple layers of investments as each project may come with its own set of investors, landowners, development partners, etc. Such multilevel holding structures are required for ease of unbundling and scalability.