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30 June 2022
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The pandemic profoundly impacted the way we use real estate but in a post-pandemic environment, tenant preferences and behaviours are now providing more certainty to the outlook of our major real estate sectors.
Property funds are not only offices and malls. Australia is at the forefront of sophisticated warehousing but lags on build-to-rent. What about logistics, technology hubs, data centres, self storage and health care?
The biggest risk for investing in residential property is not rising rates but excess supply. Rising prices create a supply response, but since the GFC, there has never been excess supply. Is that about to change?
What is APRA worried about? Most mortgagees can easily absorb increases in interest rates without posing a systemic threat to the banking system. Housing lending is a relatively risk-free activity for banks.
Never stand between Australian households and an uncapped government programme with $3 billion in ‘free money’ to build or renovate their homes. But excess supply is coming with an absence of net migration.
Alternative real estate sectors are growing in importance as their uniqueness and quality are appreciated. Australian investors are finally recalibrating their portfolios and there is a long runway from here.
Part 2. All new apartment buildings have defects, and developers and builders will not volunteer to spend time and money on fixes unless someone fights them. There's no 'defect buster' to call.
All new apartment buildings have defects, and inexperienced owners assume someone else will fix them. But developers and builders will not volunteer to spend time and money unless someone fights them. Part 1
Only six months ago, the Reserve Bank was modelling the impact on banks if house prices fell 40%. It was called 'extreme by plausible'. Most economists expected a fall of at least 10%, yet here we are with record prices.
Despite signs of optimism, market valuations are stretched and recovery is fuelled by government support. Some companies are doing well but stimulus cannot continue to prop up consumers for too long.
The Coalition victory in the Federal election removed many policies which were overhanging the property market, and a relaxation of bank lending conditions is underpinning the signs of recovery.
There are excellent investment opportunities in the smaller end of the commercial property market, but it is different from residential and comes with additional risks.
With 62% of Australians aged 65 and over relying at least partially on the age pension, are they better off owning their home or renting? There is an extra pension asset allowance for those not owning a home.
With 700 Australians retiring every day, retirement income solutions are more important than ever. Why do millions of retirees eligible for a more tax-efficient pension account hold money in accumulation?
A fund manager argues it is immoral to deny poor countries access to relatively cheap energy from fossil fuels. Wealthy countries must recognise the transition is a multi-decade challenge and continue to invest.
Equity investing comes with volatility that makes many retirees uncomfortable. A focus on income which is less volatile than share prices, and quality companies delivering robust earnings, offers more reassurance.
Using the nine dimensions of well-being used by the OECD, and dividing Australians into Baby Boomers, Generation Xers or Millennials, it is surprisingly easy to identify the winners and losers for most dimensions.
What was bothering markets in 2006? Try the end of cheap money, bond yields rising, high energy prices and record high commodity prices feeding inflation. Who says these are 'unprecedented' times? It's 2006 v 2022.