A REIT is a pot of property with no staff of its own. The REIT manager is the licensed firm that runs it — acquires and disposes of buildings, manages tenants, and proposes what the trust distributes.

It is a separate licence from the fund manager one because running property is a different job from running securities.

You do not appoint one. You buy units in a REIT, and the manager comes with it — which makes the manager's record part of what you are buying, the same way a company's management is.

None of its own. Its fee comes out of the REIT before anything reaches unit holders, which is one reason a REIT's distribution yield and its gross rental yield are not the same number.