Around $3.5bn evaporated from the listed property trust sector yesterday.

With the exception of Colonial First State Retail Property Trust, all top property trusts dropped to new lows.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 A-REITs index dropped 3.3 per cent to close at 546.9 points.

'I honestly don't know why the sector is down. US REITs were down just 1% on Friday,' one property analyst said. All the sector's leaders, including Westfield Group, Stockland and Mirvac Property Group, lost on average by 3.6% of their value, he said.

The Australian