More ishares hit the market
18 December, 2007GIC’s UBS stake puts Singapore into Switzerland
1 January, 2008ROADTEST
Perpetual Property Income Fund
Strongly performing Aussie property fund buying both listed and unlisted securities
Performance
According to Morningstar Research, it ranked second out of 183 domestic real estate investment options in the year to November 30 (with 11.39%, in its wholesale version). Strong over three years, too, at 15.8% a year – but plenty of others have done better still and on that timeframe it doesn’t make the top 25
Holdings
Just over half the fund (54.5%) goes into listed property, and 44.2% in direct property, with the remainder in other liquid assets. On the listed side, the top holdings (when last disclosed in September) are no surprise: Westfield Group, CFS Retail Property Trust, Mirvac Group, Mirvac REIT and Stockland. Unlisted holdings include funds backed by Australand, Mirvac, Goodman and Perpetual itself. When it comes to physical bricks and mortar, exposure includes the Morayfield SupaCentre and Mt Sheridan Plaza in Queensland and the Pender Place Shopping Centre in New South Wales.
Experience
Sean Murray heads the property team; he’s been in the industry 25 years and is well regarded. Perpetual CIO Emilio Gonzalez overseas the property group, which also includes a direct property and mortgage team.
Fees
The wholesale version, with a minimum $50,000 investment, charges a 0.9% management fee and a buy/sell spread of 1% and 0.8% respectively. The fund is also available through the WealthFocus platform, in which case fees are 1.95% and the buy spread jumps to 2.2%.
Gripes
It’s getting harder and harder to generate good returns out of this asset class as Aussie property comes off the boil.
VERDICT
The balance between listed and unlisted property is smart diversification and returns have been good.
