Tokenized real estate is not one category. It is three: public REITs (one share, $20-$200, daily liquid, diversified portfolio), retail tokenized RE platforms (RealT, Lofty, Reental, GromaCoin and similar, at $50-$100 per token, thin secondary, real properties with platform-specific trade-offs), and accredited tokenized real-asset SPVs (€80K-€2.8M per deal, direct named-asset exposure, longer lockups). The third tier is where this comparison usually gets fuzzy, because "accredited tokenized SPV" is a wrapper that holds different asset classes (real estate, energy infrastructure, working-capital credit) with very different yield profiles. Real estate at this tier delivers ~6-10% rental yield with capital appreciation on top; energy infrastructure targets 12-20% gross IRR for compensation of completely different risks. Lumping them under one number is the most common error in this comparison and the one this guide tries to fix.
Both REITs and tokenized real-asset SPVs are ways to own income-producing real assets without being the operator. The difference is where you sit in the ownership stack and what asset class actually sits underneath the wrapper.
REITs sit at the fund layer and are real-estate-only by regulatory definition. A REIT is a company that owns a portfolio of income-producing real estate (commercial, residential, healthcare, data centers, infrastructure-classified-as-real-estate, depending on the REIT). The investor owns shares in the company. The company owns the assets. The company manages them and pays out at least the legally-required share of taxable income as dividends. Public REITs trade on stock exchanges; private (non-traded) REITs trade through redemption windows or not at all.
Tokenized real-asset SPVs sit at the asset layer and hold a wider range of underlying asset classes. A tokenized SPV is a single-purpose legal entity (Romanian SRL, Austrian SPV, Maltese PIF, Luxembourg RAIF, or equivalent) holding one specific asset or a small defined portfolio. The investor holds tokens issued by the SPV under ERC-3643 or similar standards. The tokens represent fractional ownership in the SPV. The underlying can be a specific property, a battery storage installation, a solar trading book, a loan portfolio, or other real-economy cash flow. The wrapper is the same; the asset is not.
This last point matters for the rest of the guide. A comparison of "tokenization vs REITs" is properly a comparison of "REITs vs tokenized SPVs with the same underlying real estate". Where the tokenized SPV holds energy infrastructure or working-capital credit instead, the comparison is to a different reference point (specialty energy fund, private credit fund, listed infrastructure), not to a real-estate REIT. This guide keeps real estate as the primary axis of comparison and flags the non-RE sub-categories explicitly so the yield numbers stay honest.
The choice between them is not "which is better", it is which layer of ownership the allocator wants for each part of the portfolio. Both have a place. The honest comparison below walks the trade-offs at each functional dimension.
Tokenized real estate is not a single category. It splits cleanly into two tiers with very different economics, so a proper comparison needs three columns.
| Dimension | Public REIT | Retail tokenized RE platforms | Accredited tokenized SPV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Equinix, AvalonBay, Prologis, Vonovia | RealT, Lofty, Reental, GromaCoin | Deals on this desk + institutional Maltese PIF or Luxembourg RAIF structures |
| Ownership layer | Shares in a fund company | Fractional tokens in property-specific or fund-like SPVs | Fractional tokens in a single-asset SPV |
| Asset visibility | Aggregated portfolio, quarterly filings | Specific property addresses listed per token | Specific named asset with direct line-of-sight |
| Liquidity | Daily on public exchange, tight spread | P2P or platform-internal secondary, thin volume (Reental ~$5M monthly across all assets, RealT YAM, Lofty built-in) | OTC matching, 30-90 days, 5-15% NAV discount |
| Typical income yield | ~3 to 6% dividend (NAREIT 2025-2026 range) | ~5 to 12% verified, up to 16% claimed by Reental (unaudited). GromaCoin ~3% with effectively zero secondary. | Real estate: ~6-10% rental + capital growth. Energy infrastructure (BESS): ~12-22% gross IRR. Solar trading: ~12-25% gross per cycle. Credit / working capital: ~9-15% gross. |
| Primary risk driver | Public-market beta, rate cycle, sector rotation | Single-property + platform + structural (e.g. participatory loan ranking) | Asset-specific: tenant / vacancy for RE; technology degradation + energy price + regulation for energy; counterparty + cycle timing for credit |
| Minimum ticket | ~$20-$200 (one share) | ~$50 to $100 per token (some platforms experiment lower) | €80K to €2.8M+ per deal on this desk |
| Tax regime (varies) | Pass-through (US, EU national REITs) | Mixed: LLC pass-through (US offerings) or participatory loan / SPV cascade (EU offerings, see Reental Roast) | SPV-level CIT + dividend WHT on distribution |
| Investor accreditation | Open retail | Mixed: some retail open, some Reg D 506(c) accredited-only depending on jurisdiction and structure | Accredited / professional investor only |
| Reporting cadence | Quarterly audited filings (SEC, EU equivalents) | Monthly distribution dashboards typical; audit quality varies by platform | Quarterly PDFs typical, on-chain dashboards optional |
| Concentration risk | Diversified across many assets | Per-token single-property, but platforms hold many properties | Single asset or small portfolio per SPV |
Four observations from the table that are not obvious until you look at the matrix this way.
Tokenized real estate is genuinely accessible at the retail tier. RealT, Lofty, Reental, and GromaCoin offer fractional property ownership from roughly $50 to $100 per token, with some experiments at lower minimums. This is the headline "anyone can own real estate with $100" use case the tokenization stack was originally built for, and it does work: these platforms collectively hold hundreds of millions of dollars in real properties generating real rent. The reviews of specific retail tokenized RE platforms (with the honest numbers) are in the Reental RWA Roast and the GromaCoin RWA Roast on this site.
The yield gap is not just a liquidity premium. It reflects different asset risk. Public REITs deliver 3-6% dividend yields with full liquidity. Retail tokenized RE platforms target a range that runs roughly 5-12% in the verified, US-rental-home corner (RealT, Lofty); Reental claims a 15-16% average on closed Spanish, LATAM, and UAE projects but the figures are self-reported and the cherry-picking risk is real, see the Roast for the structural caveats; GromaCoin sits at the bottom of the range at ~3% claimed dividend with $32 in monthly on-chain volume making secondary liquidity effectively zero. Accredited tokenized SPVs are the tier where the wrapper hides asset-class differences: a warehouse SPV at 7-9% rental yield carries tenant and vacancy risk; a BESS SPV at 18% gross IRR carries technology degradation, energy price, and regulatory risk on top. The yield premium at the SPV tier is not just compensation for thin secondary, it is compensation for completely different things going wrong.
The reporting layer is the same level of rigour, served differently across tiers. Public REITs file SEC or EU equivalent quarterly reports audited by tier-1 firms. Retail tokenized RE platforms deliver monthly dashboards with audit quality that varies meaningfully across platforms; the Roasts cover this dimension in detail per platform. Accredited tokenized SPVs deliver private quarterly reports to allocators, audited where the SPV articles or institutional allocators require it.
The accreditation difference matters at the SPV tier, not at the retail tier. Public REITs are open retail. Many retail tokenized RE platforms are also open to non-accredited investors in their structure of choice (LLC fractional ownership for US offerings, retail-eligible structures in some EU jurisdictions), though some specific offerings on those platforms use Reg D 506(c) restrictions for higher-yield deals. Accredited tokenized SPVs (like the deals on this desk) are private-placement structures, accredited or professional investor only in every meaningful EU jurisdiction. The accreditation rule comes from the regulatory wrapper, not the cap-table mechanism. For the structural reasons read the tokenization vs private placement guide.
If the allocator question is "can I sell tomorrow", REITs win without close comparison.
Public REIT shares trade on stock exchanges with millisecond settlement, tight bid-ask spreads (typically 0.05 to 0.20% on the largest names), and daily volume that can absorb any institutional position. An allocator can liquidate a $5M public REIT position in minutes during market hours without meaningfully moving the price.
Tokenized real-asset SPV interests trade thinly through OTC matching coordinated by the advisor or the issuance platform. Realistic liquidity for tokenized real-asset SPVs in 2026: 30 to 90 days to find a qualified buyer at a 5 to 15 percent discount to NAV, with longer timelines for unusual asset classes and tighter discounts for established structures with active secondary venues. Permissioned secondary exchanges (INX, ADDX, a handful of EU-regulated alternatives) exist but secondary liquidity for real-asset SPV tokens remains thin in 2026. The mechanics of transfer are clean (smart-contract settlement, KYC enforcement) but the depth of the buyer pool is the binding constraint.
Private (non-traded) REITs sit in between. They are not exchange-traded but offer redemption through the REIT sponsor on defined windows, typically monthly or quarterly. In stressed markets these redemption windows can be gated or suspended; this happened at scale during 2022-2023 across multiple major non-traded REIT sponsors. The lesson: the "private REIT" label does not automatically deliver REIT-grade liquidity; it delivers sponsor-discretion liquidity, which is materially different.
For an allocator sizing the trade-off, the practical question is: what is the probability that you need to exit this position within the next 12 months? If the answer is high, the position should be in a public REIT. If the answer is low (or you have meaningful other liquid holdings to absorb potential needs), tokenized SPV exposure is worth considering for the higher gross yield and direct asset visibility.
Comparing yields between the two vehicles requires looking at gross, net of platform cost, net of tax, and net of risk-adjusted basis. The headline yield is the start of the conversation, not the end.
Public REIT yield benchmarks. The FTSE Nareit All Equity REIT index has historically delivered dividend yields in the 3 to 5 percent range in the US market with sector variation (specialty and infrastructure REITs sometimes higher, residential and industrial often lower). Total return (dividend plus price appreciation) has averaged 8 to 12 percent annually over long horizons, with meaningful drawdowns during recessions and rate-hike cycles. European REIT equivalents (German G-REITs, French SIICs, UK REITs) deliver similar dividend yields in the 3 to 6 percent range with national variations.
Tokenized real-asset SPV gross yield ranges (EU 2026 market on this desk), broken out by asset class because lumping them is the most common error in this comparison.
| Asset class in SPV | Gross income yield | Key risk driver |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial real estate (warehouse, office, light industrial) | ~6-10% rental + capital growth | Tenant, vacancy, location, lease-up risk |
| Residential real estate (multifamily) | ~5-8% rental + capital growth | Vacancy, rent-control regulation, maintenance |
| Energy infrastructure (stationary BESS) | ~14-22% gross IRR | Technology degradation, capacity-market design, energy price compression |
| Energy infrastructure (mobile BESS) | ~12-18% gross IRR | Utilization, customer default, asset-mobility risk |
| Solar trading / energy arbitrage | ~12-20% gross per cycle | Trading-team skill, price-spread compression, regulatory restrictions |
| Tokenized private credit / working capital | ~9-15% gross | Default rate, recovery, origination volume |
Important on real estate yields specifically. The 6-10% commercial and 5-8% residential numbers are rental yield (the cash component, what the property earns from tenants each year). Capital appreciation is the second income source and is recognised at exit (refinancing or sale) rather than mark-to-market. A well-located European warehouse at 7% rental yield with 2-3% annual capital growth delivers ~9-10% total return over the hold; a flat capital cycle delivers just the 7% rental yield. The total return number depends materially on the cycle, which is why most honest underwriting frames the deal on the rental yield alone and treats capital appreciation as upside, not as base case.
Energy and credit yields work differently. Energy infrastructure deals are quoted on a target IRR basis that includes terminal value, not on a running yield. A BESS SPV at 18% gross IRR is not earning 18% per year as cash to the allocator; it is targeting an 18% IRR over the full holding period that combines distributions during the operating phase and residual value at exit. Solar trading SPVs are quoted as gross per cycle (typically 6-12 months) and the IRR depends on cycle-stacking. Tokenized credit pools are closest to a running yield because the loan book turns over and pays out continuously.
Net-in-pocket cascade applies to all of them. Less SPV overhead (1-3 percentage points), less SPV-jurisdiction corporate tax (16% Romania, 23% Austria, 12.5% Liechtenstein, 24.94% Luxembourg), less dividend withholding (0-15% under treaties, 8-10% domestic Romania). Plan on 60-75% of gross reaching the allocator depending on the structure. The mobile BESS and solar trading SPV guides walk the cascade in detail; the industrial property guide walks the warehouse rental cascade.
The honest net comparison. A 5% US REIT dividend is taxed at the investor's ordinary rate (often partially deductible under 199A). A 7% net warehouse SPV in Austria nets to roughly 5% in the allocator's personal pocket after the SPV cascade, before any capital growth. An 18% BESS SPV in Romania nets to roughly 12-14% in pocket. The accredited tokenized SPV tier still wins on income yield, but: (1) the gap is narrower than the gross headline suggests, and (2) for the real-estate sub-category the income gap to a comparable REIT is small once tax cascades through. The reason to hold a tokenized warehouse SPV is direct asset visibility and the call option on capital appreciation of a specific property, not the income gap to a REIT.
Total return comparison is not symmetric. Public REITs include both income (dividend) and price appreciation (share-price mark-to-market) continuously. Tokenized real-estate SPVs deliver income from rent and book the capital appreciation only at exit. Tokenized energy SPVs typically deliver income only (the asset depreciates over the cycle and the residual value is the salvage). Tokenized credit SPVs deliver income only. Allocators benchmarking should compare REIT total return against tokenized SPV cumulative cash distributions plus expected residual, not against gross headline yield.
This is the dimension where the structural difference matters most and where allocators most often compare apples to oranges.
REIT tax treatment is pass-through, with national variations. US REITs that distribute at least 90 percent of taxable income pay no corporate tax on the distributed portion; investors receive dividends taxed as ordinary income at the personal rate, with a partial deduction under Section 199A available to qualifying investors (typically reducing the effective rate by ~6.4 percentage points for the QBI portion). EU REIT-equivalent structures (SIIC in France, G-REIT in Germany, REIT in UK, FBI in Netherlands, SOCIMI in Spain) have similar pass-through mechanics with national variations in distribution requirements and treatment.
Tokenized SPV tax treatment is the full cascade. The SPV pays corporate tax in its jurisdiction (16% Romania, 23% Austria, 12.5% Liechtenstein, 24.94% Luxembourg, 35% headline Malta with refund mechanism). Profits then distribute to allocators subject to dividend withholding (typically 0-15% under EU treaties for foreign residents, 8-10% domestic in Romania, 27.5% domestic in Austria reduced under treaties). The all-in tax burden is meaningfully higher than REIT pass-through for the same gross income.
The honest interpretation: tokenized SPVs target higher gross yields specifically because they pay more tax than REITs at the structural level. The net-in-pocket comparison is closer than the gross headlines suggest. For specific cascade examples, the per-jurisdiction breakdowns are in the EU jurisdiction comparison guide.
One important nuance: a Luxembourg RAIF holding structure with the participation-exemption regime can substantially neutralise the cascade for qualifying institutional investors. This is one of the reasons large tokenized real-asset structures use Luxembourg aggregators rather than direct national SPVs.
The two vehicles open different universes of underlying assets.
REITs deliver broad sector access. Public REIT markets include residential (apartment REITs, single-family rental REITs), commercial (office, retail, hotel), industrial (warehouses, logistics), specialty (data centers, cell towers, healthcare facilities, gaming), and infrastructure (timber, energy infrastructure). An allocator wanting exposure to data centers as a sector can buy Equinix or Digital Realty in seconds. An allocator wanting US apartment REIT exposure can buy AvalonBay or Equity Residential. The breadth and immediacy of access is real.
Tokenized real-asset SPVs deliver deal-specific access. Tokenization opens specific deals that would not otherwise be accessible to fractional allocators: a specific Romanian battery storage installation, a specific Austrian refurbished warehouse, a specific solar trading cycle, a specific industrial park. The asset is named, located, and inspectable. The trade-off is that the universe of available deals is small at any given moment (this desk holds five live deals in 2026), and access depends on advisor sourcing rather than open-market availability.
For the broader picture of which real-world assets actually fit the tokenization stack, see the 12 RWAs that work, 5 that don't guide. For the specific deals available through this desk, see the live deals page.
The accessibility map across the real-estate tokenization stack runs from one dollar to several million euro. Each tier has its own audience and its own honest trade-offs.
One share buys you proportional exposure to a diversified portfolio managed by a public company under SEC, ESMA, or equivalent national regulatory oversight. An investor with $1,000 of capital can build meaningful exposure across sectors and geographies. The vehicle is open retail by design and the accessibility is real.
This is the headline "anyone can own real estate with $100" tier. RealT (around $130-150M AUM, primarily US rental homes, ~8-12% yields with weekly xDai payouts), Lofty (~$89M AUM, US rental homes on Algorand, ~5-8% with daily payouts), Reental ($71M AUM across Spain, LATAM, UAE with 15-16% average closed-project returns), and GromaCoin ($68M AUM in Boston multifamily, ~3% claimed dividend) collectively hold hundreds of millions of dollars in real properties generating real rent. Per-token entry sits at $50 to $100 across these platforms.
These are real platforms with real assets, but each carries platform-specific structural trade-offs that allocators should evaluate before subscribing. Reental's Spanish offerings use a participatory loan structure that ranks below ordinary debt in insolvency. GromaCoin has only 218 holders despite a $68M AUM, with $32 in monthly on-chain volume signalling that secondary liquidity is effectively zero in 2026. The honest per-platform analyses are in the Reental RWA Roast and the GromaCoin RWA Roast. The RWA Roast series covers additional platforms as they meet the threshold for review.
Single-asset or small-portfolio structures requiring accredited or professional investor status. Tokenized SPVs on this desk range from €80,000 (mobile BESS trailer) to €2,800,000 (Austrian warehouse whole-deal), with fractional tokenization opening the larger deals to allocators below the whole-deal ticket. The €80K floor is structural: below that threshold, tokenization overhead and KYC infrastructure consume the per-unit margin.
Tier 3 spans asset classes and the yield differences reflect different risk, not just different liquidity. The honest anchor numbers from deals on this desk:
For an allocator picking between Tier 3 options, the honest framing is asset-by-asset. The warehouse is the closest comparable to a REIT (rental income, hold-to-yield, capital appreciation at exit) with the direct ownership upgrade. The BESS and solar deals are categorically different products: higher gross headline because the underlying risk profile is materially different, not because the wrapper is fancier.
For the full structural reasoning on why these deal sizes need tokenization see the tokenization vs private placement guide.
Different tiers solve different problems. Tier 2 solves accessibility for retail investors who want fractional property exposure without the public-equity volatility of REITs. Tier 3 solves direct asset visibility and higher gross yield for accredited allocators willing to accept the lockup, with the caveat that "higher gross yield" only applies to the energy and credit sub-categories; real-estate Tier 3 yields are comparable to good REIT net income, with the value-add being direct asset exposure and capital-growth optionality on a specific property. The tiers are not in competition; they are different products for different buyers.
The real lesson from this comparison is that the three vehicles serve different roles. Most allocators with a meaningful real-estate sleeve hold more than one rather than picking just one.
Illustrative only, not advice. The sleeve weights below are a working example for an accredited allocator with a long horizon and other liquidity sources outside the real-asset bucket. They are not investment recommendations. Specific weights depend on the allocator's overall portfolio, liquidity needs, tax residency, risk tolerance, and the asset classes actually available at sourcing time. Every weight should be set with the allocator's own advisor, not from a public guide.
A representative portfolio sleeve for a family office allocator with €2-10M earmarked for real assets:
The point of the split is that no single vehicle covers all the real-estate exposure an allocator might want. REITs cannot deliver direct ownership of a specific high-yielding Romanian battery installation. Accredited tokenized SPVs cannot deliver $100 entry tickets for thematic single-family rental exposure. Retail tokenized RE platforms cannot deliver daily-rebalanceable diversified core exposure. Each tier solves a problem the others do not solve cleanly. Allocators who understand this end up holding two or three of them at appropriate weights rather than forcing one to do another's job.
For specific allocation sizing for your portfolio, the calculator walks ticket size against available live deals on this desk.
A small but growing category sits between traditional REITs and tokenized real-asset SPVs: tokenized REITs. Examples include GromaCoin (tokenized share of the Groma Real Estate Trust, a private REIT), Centrifuge-hosted institutional tokenized funds (including Janus Henderson's Anemoy Treasury Fund), and several smaller platforms.
These vehicles share characteristics of both categories. They use the tokenization stack (on-chain cap table, ERC-3643 or similar standard, KYC enforcement at transfer) but the underlying economic exposure is REIT-like (private fund structure, sponsor-managed portfolio, distribution waterfall).
The honest assessment: tokenized REITs inherit the liquidity limitations of private REITs (thin secondary, sponsor-controlled redemption) without delivering the public-REIT liquidity profile. For allocators who specifically value the on-chain mechanics (cleaner cap table, KYC-enforced transfer, structurally easier secondary OTC matching), tokenized REITs are a legitimate option. For allocators who value liquidity, public REITs win cleanly. For allocators who value direct asset-level transparency, tokenized real-asset SPVs win cleanly.
Detailed independent reviews of specific tokenized REITs and platforms are in the RWA Roast series, with the most detailed structural analyses in the GromaCoin and Reental reviews and the Centrifuge piece on the institutional fund structure.
Thirty-minute investment call. Bring the rough size of your real-estate sleeve, your existing REIT positions, and your liquidity profile. I'll show you which of the five live deals on the desk fit the tokenized allocation in your portfolio, what the net cascade looks like at your residency, and how the position complements rather than competes with your REIT holdings.
The practical sequence for an allocator deciding between a specific REIT and a specific tokenized real-asset SPV opportunity.
For allocators new to the tokenized side, the recommended sequence is: start with public REIT exposure for the core, allocate a small tokenized SPV position (5-10% of the real-estate sleeve) to a specific deal you have done direct due diligence on, and scale the tokenized allocation based on real experience rather than projection.
Neither is uniformly better. REITs win on liquidity, breadth, accessibility, and tax pass-through. Tokenized SPVs win on direct asset visibility, higher gross yield, and specific deal exposure. Most allocators hold both. See section 08.
Depends on the asset class inside the SPV. Public REITs: ~3-6% dividend (NAREIT range). Tokenized real-estate SPVs (warehouse, office, multifamily): ~6-10% rental yield + capital growth at exit. Tokenized energy infrastructure (BESS): ~14-22% gross IRR. Tokenized solar trading: ~12-20% gross per cycle. Tokenized credit: ~9-15% gross. The yield gap to the SPV tier is not just compensation for thin liquidity, it is compensation for different asset risk: a warehouse SPV runs tenant and vacancy risk; a BESS SPV runs technology degradation and energy-price risk. See the asset-class breakdown in section 04.
Yes, materially. Public REITs settle in milliseconds on stock exchanges. Tokenized SPV secondary takes 30-90 days through OTC matching at 5-15% discount to NAV. Private (non-traded) REITs sit in between with redemption windows that can be gated. See section 03.
Three tiers across tokenized real estate. Public REIT: one share, ~$20-$200. Retail tokenized RE platforms (RealT, Lofty, Reental, GromaCoin): ~$50-$100 per token, some experiments lower. Real platforms with real assets but with platform-specific trade-offs covered in the Reental Roast and GromaCoin Roast. Accredited tokenized SPVs (this desk and equivalent): €80K to €2.8M+ per deal, professional investor only. Private (non-traded) REIT: ~$1,000-$50,000, separate category that pre-dates tokenization. See section 07.
No. They serve different roles. REITs deliver liquid diversified exposure. Tokenized SPVs deliver concentrated high-conviction exposure. A typical real-estate sleeve uses both at appropriate weights. See section 08.
REITs use pass-through (no corporate tax if distribution thresholds met; investor taxed at marginal rate, possibly with 199A or national equivalent deductions). Tokenized SPVs use full cascade (SPV-level corporate tax in the jurisdiction plus dividend withholding on distribution). Net-in-pocket comparison closes the gross-yield gap meaningfully. See section 05.
In-between category. On-chain cap-table mechanics with private REIT economic exposure. Inherit the liquidity limitations of private REITs without delivering public REIT liquidity. Reviewed in detail in the RWA Roast series. See section 09.
At this size, the core should be public REITs (liquid, diversified, low minimum) with optional retail tokenized RE platforms (RealT, Lofty, Reental) at $50-$100 per token for thematic exposure to specific properties or geographies. One accredited tokenized SPV position (€80K mobile BESS, for example) becomes feasible at the upper end of the range if the allocator wants concentrated direct asset exposure and is comfortable with the lockup. For €500K+ the proportion shifts toward higher accredited tokenized SPV allocation because per-deal tickets fit within the sleeve.
Apply the 9-point DD checklist regardless of which advisor sources the deal: asset, operator, jurisdiction, SPV structure, token mechanics, allocator rights, distribution waterfall, reporting, exit. Read the DD checklist.