An increasing number of financial advisors planning to incorporate REITs into clients portfolios when they launch in January 2007.

The evidence comes from a research project commissioned by REITA, the REITs awareness campaign, where 200 financial advisors took part in a two-wave survey in May and October 2006.

Last month, 44% of advisors questioned said they planned to incorporate REITs – an increase of 10% from the summer.

The number of advisors claiming they were ‘not at all’ informed about REITS fell to 8% from 12% over the period.

General advisors were the most well informed about REITs (76%), compared with just 13% of wealth managers and 5% of pension advisors.

But only 64% of advisors said they expected to incorporate REITs into client portfolios, compared with 73% for the more established global REITS funds.

Dave Butler, project director of Reita, said: ‘The second wave results make encouraging reading but we can’t afford to be complacent. While there is clearly much more work to be done by REITs providers and property companies, the growing awareness in the last six weeks is certainly positive.

‘With the deadline to launch now close, it’s imperative that we work together as an industry to ensure advisors, private investors and other financial professions are fully informed about the opportunities that UK REITs will provide.’