How-to REIT real estate investment trust IPO Zerodha UPI ASBA SEBI

How to apply for a REIT IPO on Zerodha

From WebNotes, a public knowledge base. Last updated . Reading time ~11 min. Level: Intermediate.

A REIT public issue appears in the same Kite IPO window as an equity IPO, but Zerodha books a bid placed through UPI into it as a Non-Individual Investor (NII) application rather than the retail RII category, and you bid in multiples of a one-unit lot rather than against the Rs 2 lakh retail ceiling. A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a SEBI -registered pooled vehicle that owns income-producing commercial real estate, office parks, malls or warehouses, and passes the bulk of its rental cash flow to unitholders. This guide covers where the issue shows up, the category and lot quirks, the UPI ASBA and net-banking routes, and the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations 2014 that set the distribution and asset-composition floors.

The bidding flow matches an equity IPO on Kite : enter a quantity and price, tick the SEBI undertaking, approve a UPI mandate that blocks the money until allotment. What differs is the categorisation, the one-unit lot, and the structure of the instrument. This is the real-estate sibling of how to apply for an InvIT IPO on Zerodha , which shares the NII categorisation and the one-unit lot but holds infrastructure rather than property. Read how to apply for an IPO on Kite web for the base flow, and REITs on Zerodha for the conceptual reference.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure. This guide is published by the WebNotes Editorial Team for informational purposes and is written independently. WebNotes operates a Zerodha account-opening referral programme, disclosed on the pages that carry the referral link; this guide does not carry it and earns no referral commission from the procedure described here.

Step-by-step procedure

The numbered box at the top sets the sequence. The detail below expands the parts that confuse people first time: the NII categorisation, and the one-unit lot against the Rs 5 lakh UPI cap.

1. Open the IPO window on Kite

A REIT public issue shows in the standard IPO list. On Kite web, click Bids then IPO; on the Kite app, tap Orders then IPO. Both labels point at the same window. The issue card carries the trust name, the price band, the lot size, the minimum application and the closing date, alongside any open equity IPOs. There is no separate REIT tab; Zerodha routes the issue through the existing IPO surface and changes the category on the back end.

2. Open the issue and read the offer document

Open the issue and read the offer document linked from the SEBI public-issues portal before bidding. A REIT unit is not an equity share; its value rests on the rental cash flow of its property portfolio, its occupancy, its weighted-average lease expiry and its debt. Check the price band, the one-unit lot and what it costs at the cut-off, the distribution per unit over recent periods, and the portfolio’s occupancy and tenant concentration. A SEBI-registered REIT holds at least 80 per cent of the value of its assets in completed, rent-generating property, with no more than 20 per cent in under-construction or other assets, so the cash-flow base is largely operational from day one.

3. Tap Apply and enter your UPI ID

Tap Apply and enter your own UPI ID in username@bank form, for example rajesh@okaxis. The sponsor bank rejects a family member’s, a business’s or a merchant UPI ID, because the third-party verification matches the bank account behind the UPI ID against the PAN on your demat. A mismatch causes a silent rejection that surfaces only after the issue closes.

4. Enter quantity and price

Enter the quantity as a multiple of the lot size; the form rejects any other figure. Enter a price inside the band, or tick Cut-off to accept the final price. Keep the total below Rs 5 lakh to stay on the UPI ASBA rail. This is the practical ceiling for a REIT bid on Kite, not the Rs 2 lakh equity-retail limit, because Zerodha categorises the UPI bid as NII. To bid above Rs 5 lakh you must apply through your bank’s net-banking ASBA, covered in how to apply for an IPO without UPI .

5. Tick the undertaking and submit

Tick the SEBI undertaking, which confirms the bid is not a duplicate under another PAN and that the bank account behind the UPI ID is in your own name. Submit. Zerodha transmits the bid to the exchange and triggers the block request; the status reads Pending Mandate. Only one application per PAN is accepted, and a bid can be revised upward but not cancelled or reduced once submitted.

6. Approve the UPI mandate before 5 PM on closing day

Open the Block Funds notification in your UPI app and check the trust name, the block amount and the beneficiary before authorising with your UPI PIN. The bank places a lien on the savings account: the available balance drops by the block amount while the book balance and the interest accrual are unchanged. The mandate must be approved by 5 PM IST on the bid closing day; a later approval is not forwarded to the registrar.

7. Track the bid and the allotment

Check Bids then Order history for the live status. After the issue closes, the registrar runs the basis of allotment and the status moves to allotted or not allotted. Allotted units credit to your demat; the block on any unallotted amount releases when the bank receives the registrar’s unblock instruction, covered in how to release blocked IPO funds .

Why a REIT bid is categorised as non-individual

Zerodha states it directly on its support page: “REIT IPO applications made through UPI are considered Non-Individual Investor (NII) category bids.” This is how REIT and InvIT public issues are bid, not a Zerodha quirk, and it mirrors the InvIT flow . The equity-IPO split into a retail individual investor (RII) bucket up to Rs 2 lakh and a non-institutional bucket above it does not map onto a REIT issue. The operative cap on Kite is the Rs 5 lakh UPI ASBA limit, so a bidder used to the equity Rs 2 lakh ceiling can apply for up to Rs 5 lakh on UPI here.

The NII tag also shapes allotment: where a REIT issue is oversubscribed in its bidding pool, allotment runs proportionately within the pool rather than through the equity-retail draw of lots. Read IPO investor categories for how RII, NII and QIB allocation differs.

Minimum application and the one-unit lot

No single rupee minimum holds across every REIT issue; you bid in multiples of the trading lot, which SEBI cut to one unit in 2021, from the earlier 100-unit lot. Embassy Office Parks REIT, the first listed Indian REIT, reduced its lot from 200 units to a single unit after the change. The practical minimum for a given issue is one lot at the cut-off, stated on the offer document and the Kite issue card. The 2021 reduction brought REIT units within reach of an ordinary retail demat, where the earlier multi-lakh minimum had limited them to large investors.

A small and medium REIT (SM REIT) is a different instrument. The SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) (Amendment) Regulations notified on 8 March 2024 created the SM REIT framework, bringing fractional-ownership platforms under SEBI. An SM REIT scheme holds a per-scheme asset value of Rs 50 crore to Rs 500 crore, must place at least 95 per cent in completed, revenue-generating assets, and carries a minimum investment of Rs 10 lakh per investor, far above the one-lot minimum of a regular listed REIT. The first in practice, the PropShare Platina scheme of Property Share Investment Trust, opened in December 2024 at about Rs 10 lakh a unit.

Distribution mandate, structure and what you are buying

Under Regulation 18 of the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations 2014, a REIT must distribute at least 90 per cent of its net distributable cash flows to unitholders, at least half-yearly. Most listed Indian REITs distribute quarterly in practice. The distribution combines interest, dividend and return-of-capital components, each taxed differently in the unitholder’s hands, so the headline yield is not directly comparable with an equity dividend yield. A REIT is a three-party structure of sponsor, manager and trustee, with a minimum asset value of Rs 500 crore and a minimum public offer of Rs 250 crore at the IPO stage.

The listed Indian REITs are Embassy Office Parks (2019, the first), Mindspace Business Parks (2020), Brookfield India Real Estate Trust (2021), Nexus Select Trust (2023, the first retail-mall REIT), and Knowledge Realty Trust, which listed in 2025. For the conceptual reference on the instrument, its tax treatment and the listed REITs, read REITs on Zerodha . For the infrastructure sibling, read how to apply for an InvIT IPO on Zerodha .

See also

External references

References

  1. SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014, as amended, Regulation 18 (mandatory distribution of at least 90 per cent of net distributable cash flows).
  2. SEBI circular SEBI/HO/DDHS/DDHS/CIR/P/2019/59, dated 23 April 2019, on bidding, allotment and trading lot size for REITs and InvITs (lot subsequently reduced to one unit in 2021).
  3. SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024, notified 8 March 2024 (small and medium REIT framework; Rs 10 lakh minimum investment per investor).
  4. Zerodha support, REIT IPOs using UPI (REIT bids through UPI categorised as Non-Individual Investor; Rs 5 lakh UPI cap; as of 21 June 2026).
  5. SEBI framework on net distributable cash flows for REITs and InvITs, effective 1 April 2024.

WebNotes Editorial Team prepares factual how-to guides based on publicly available regulatory documents and broker disclosures. WebNotes is not affiliated with Zerodha Broking Limited. Procedures, lot sizes and charges are subject to change; verify current requirements at support.zerodha.com and in each issue’s offer document before applying.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum application for a REIT IPO on Zerodha?
There is no single rupee floor across all issues; you bid in multiples of the one-unit lot set by the trust, so the minimum equals one lot at the cut-off price. Each issue states its lot value in the offer document, which Kite shows on the issue card.
Which investor category does a REIT bid through UPI fall under at Zerodha?
Zerodha states that REIT IPO applications made through UPI are considered Non-Individual Investor (NII) category bids, not the equity retail RII category. The equity Rs 2 lakh retail ceiling does not apply the same way; the Rs 5 lakh UPI ASBA cap is the operative boundary.
Can I use UPI ASBA for a REIT issue?
Yes, for an application up to Rs 5 lakh you approve a UPI mandate exactly as for an equity IPO. Above Rs 5 lakh the UPI route is unavailable and you apply through net-banking ASBA from a bank on the SEBI list of self-certified syndicate banks.
What is the trading lot for a listed REIT?
One unit. SEBI cut the REIT trading lot to a single unit in 2021, from the earlier 100-unit lot. Embassy Office Parks, for example, reduced its lot from 200 units to one. A listed REIT therefore trades on the exchange like any one-share equity quantity.
How much of its cash flow must a REIT distribute?
At least 90 per cent of net distributable cash flows, under Regulation 18 of the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations 2014, at least half-yearly. Most listed Indian REITs distribute quarterly in practice. A REIT holds at least 80 per cent of its assets in completed, income-producing property.
Does Zerodha charge to apply for a REIT IPO?
No. Zerodha levies no charge to submit a REIT application through Kite. You pay only on the secondary-market side later: brokerage is zero on REIT delivery, but statutory charges and an exchange transaction fee apply when you buy or sell units after listing.
Is an SM REIT the same as a regular REIT?
No. A small and medium REIT, created by the SEBI (REIT) Amendment Regulations notified 8 March 2024, holds a per-scheme asset value of Rs 50 crore to Rs 500 crore and carries a minimum investment of Rs 10 lakh per investor, far above the one-lot minimum of a regular listed REIT.

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