Real estate investment funds (REIF) took their place in the Turkish capital market with the communiqué of the Capital Markets Board CMB dated 03.01.2014. REIFs are institutions that bring together the construction industry in Turkey with corporate finance. The first fund in Turkey was established in 2016 and currently 80 funds are managed by 21 fund management companies. The aim of this study is to examine the financial and operational performances of real estate investment funds, which are expected to contribute to the institutionalization and acceleration of real estate investments and the elimination of financial problems such as the middle income trap in the sector. In this study, whether these funds can provide the expected contributions, fund development processes, investment strategies, structural problems in the sector, legal regulations, sectoral expectations and portfolio performance are analyzed as a whole. Due to limited number of the listed REIFs in Borsa İstanbul sample size is relative small with 6 observations. After providing all current statistics regarding REIFs stiuations in Turkey, portfolio performance is measured by Sharpe and Treynor ratios. In order to find out relative portfolio performance, indicators of listed REIFs are compared with returns of the Bist-100 national stock index and REIT index which are used as benchmark indicator. According to results of the analysis, it has been found out that most of funds provided better performance than Bist-100 national stock index and REIT Index. Based on the findings obtained in this study, it is strictly recommended that legal regulations should be implemented as soon as possible to increase REIF’s profitability and operational efficiency and make them sustainable.  

Capital Markets, Real Estate Investment Funds, Real Estate Finance