REITs or Pyramid Schemes in Armani Suits? Nikhil Pattani

June 07, 2025

REITs or Pyramid Schemes in Armani Suits? Nikhil Pattani

Are You Investing in Real Estate or Just Someone’s Retirement Villa in Dubai?

Ever wonder if your hard-earned cash is building luxury hotels —

or just lining the pockets of some real estate overlord who thinks Dubai is a tax-saving plan?

Let’s talk REITs. The rich man’s Ponzi scheme? Or the poor man’s property play?

They wear suits, speak in jargon, show you drone shots of fancy properties, and call it "fractional ownership."

But what if REITs are just the pyramid scheme you willingly walked into — with better lighting and shinier decks?

Because sometimes, the fraud wears perfume and files quarterly reports.

🏗️ Let’s Break It Down:

REITs promise you this:

“We’ll buy the buildings, you give us the cash, we’ll split the rent money.”

Sounds fair. But peel the layers and you might just find a suspicious structure that smells less like real estate and more like… repackaged MLM logic.

🧠 What They Won’t Tell You

Dividend Mirage: They show you a 6–7% dividend yield, but don’t tell you it’s just your own money coming back dressed as profit.

Opaque Deals: Some REITs invest in related parties, sister firms, or shady offshore structures. Your ₹1 lakh may have just funded a parking lot in nowhere.

Performance is Management-Based: If the top brass screws up a lease or overpays for an asset, you lose — not them.

💸 “Passive Income” or Passive Trap?

Remember:

You can’t sell a flat in a bad market, but you can Panic Sell a REIT at a loss in 3 seconds on your demat.

That's not liquidity. That's a trap door.

📊 Real Example:

XYZ REIT (name redacted to avoid lawsuits) promised "consistent 8% yield."

Then:

📉 Covid hit

📉 Leases got cancelled

📉 Property prices tanked

📉 Dividends dropped

📉 Stock price halved

Investor returns: -35%

Management bonuses: 💰 still paid.

🧠 Wake-Up Call:

This ain’t about real estate anymore.

This is financial theatre.

And you, dear investor, are in the audience throwing roses… and rupees.

🎤 Final Drop:

The only thing separating REITs from Ponzi schemes is SEBI —

And if you trust regulators blindly, you’ve clearly never heard of Sahara.

Nikhil Pattani, the brains behind Destiniva Realty and Scholars' Takshashila, is shaking up the real estate world with 28 years of game-changing expertise across India and the UAE. Known for his bold sustainability moves, like launching India’s first Green Realtor Certification, Nikhil has helped 3,000+ families find their dream homes. With his ‘Sales Chanakya’ smarts and 1 lakh-word real estate manifesto, he's setting new rules for the industry. Ready to see what the future of real estate looks like? Nikhil's already built it.

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