The finance ministry said Monday it will ease regulations on real estate investment trusts as part of efforts to help normalize the real estate project financing sector.

The government will create "project REITs" after drastically lifting regulations so as to allow a greater number of small investors to join the projects and will expand REIT investment targets to health care, data centers and other promising fields, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

REITs are a type of security that invests in real estate to be traded on major exchanges and provides investors with stakes in real estate, such as office buildings, apartments and hotels.

The measure came as South Korea is facing risks stemming from rising delinquencies in the real estate PF sector amid the property market slump and high interest rates, and the government is striving to support an "orderly soft landing" for the debt to minimize its potential impact on the economy.

"The government will help allow more people to enjoy benefits from real estate developments," Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said during an economy-related ministers' meeting. "We will continue efforts to normalize the PF market." (Yonhap)