Professional Planner|Zenith Fund Awards 2015 – direct property
Winner: AMP Capital
Zenith says: AMP Capital benefits from the significant expertise and resources of the wider AMP group. The business operates an internalised model, keeping both property management and asset management in-house. When executed well, Zenith favours such models strongly as this typically allows for a closer relationship with tenants and creates strong synergies in asset management. AMP’s extensive real estate expertise is combined with conservative and robust risk management practices.
– Dugald Higgins, senior investment analyst
Zenith sector review: Direct property markets continue to benefit from strong capital inflows driven by historically cheap debt and yield spreads remaining elevated. Despite this, broad real estate fundamentals remain weak. As always, those with strong investment discipline, robust portfolios and appropriate capital structures will be rewarded, particularly when the cycle turns. Managers with strong active management skills matched with astute asset selection continue to perform well, generating solid, low-volatility returns for which this asset class is favoured.
Chris Judd, head of AMP Capital Property Funds Management (pictured): We’ve been very well supported by investors, and we’ve been delivering on our promise of the investment proposition of the Wholesale Australian Property Fund, and that’s providing reliable income to our investor base. Property markets continue to maintain momentum. We need to be mindful of being disciplined in a market that’s very well bid, and that if we’re buying properties, that we research and have complete conviction in what we’re buying, not only now but through the cycles. I think volatility is one of the characteristics of direct property. We’re appraisal-based, so we’re not subject to the day-to-day movement of equity markets; our properties are valued quarterly, and that eliminates a lot of capital volatility that you might find in other asset classes.
