Need to be a little careful with APRA, who only report (publicly) +$100m in assets.
On that basis yes, no question the large Industry funds outperform the retail (but not corporate). (Insight Table 12, 10 year average return Industry 6.7%, Retail 5.3% (Corporate 7.8%))
Two buts:
1. This performance is dominated by the CFMEU and affiliated funds (3 funds aggregate 34bn fum 2006 - nearly 30% of the total fum) and APRA has noted their over concentration on CBD property (AFRA Notice 36 of 2005).
The Fed Govt's support of Commercial Property Lending may or may not help asset values in this sector, and may or may not help these fund's performance thru this part of the cycle. And may or may not have been aimed at this issue.
2. Most retail funds have less than $100m in assets. APRA's request for broadening its mandate (and increasing its budget) was knocked back in 2003 (one would suspect on budget grounds) and again last year.
The data is therefore more than a little skewed, albeit, the smaller retail fund products are harder to find.
10 yr data is good data, but has not yet covered a full cycle. Perhaps.
