Listed real estate trusts (REITs) have been quietly going about their businesss of beating the market, though that wouldn't have been hard.
They thrive on low interest rates and so gained 10 per cent over the past year when the rest of the market fell an average 5 per cent. With dividends REITs returned 15 per cent as the overall sharemarket managed zilch.
But they're getting expensive and seem to be flagging. If you missed the boat, though, there's another chance. You can catch up through an unlisted property trust.
The trick is in taking advantage of the fact that commercial property valuations tend to follow REITs but take their time about it.
The reason for the discrepancy is that the sharemarket values REITs. Sometimes it doesn't value them much at all because they can trade below their property values but that's another story.
Anyway, unlisted funds are valued less frequently though, no offence to the sharemarket, somewhat more systematically by professional valuers.
In its usual mysterious but messy way the sharemarket seems to have it right judging by the falling capitalisation or cap rates – the return demanded by buyers – of commercial property deals this year. Lower cap rates push up values.
The trouble for REITs is that thanks to their good run their yields aren't as compelling as, say, the banks' though some still boast 6 per cent or more.
But unlisted funds investing in factories and warehouses yield 7.5 per cent.
Also their prices don't jump around erratically so, unlike REITs, they provide genuine diversification from the sharemarket. In fact they've been consistently returning 9 to 10 per cent annually in income and capital gains ever since the GFC.
Anyway as I was saying unlisted properties are being revalued upwards, in keeping with what's been happening with REITs.
The catch up shouldn't take too long thanks to the lower dollar and insatiable international appetite for high yielding Australian property.
A Sydney or Melbourne office block, for example, has a cap rate around 5.5 per cent compared with 3 per cent or so in New York or Tokyo and even less in Hong Kong.
And while new office blocks are being built which might be expected to depress values, others are virtually dematerialising as mainly Chinese buyers especially snap them up to convert into apartments. Not that I'm saying so but that also gets them around the foreign ownership rules.
Shopping mall property trusts are also coming back into favour with the weaker dollar bringing in tourists, keeping local shoppers home, and making online retailers more expensive.
Twitter: @moneypotts
