because nearly all of their property funds are pure residential - at the end of the day an investor is buying an apartment for living purposes (call it what you want but student accommodation is still residential). they have about 7 funds set up + 3 more wholesale apartment funds and their NYC building - i would call this overweight residential, and before someone brings up their Maroochydore fund as 'commercial' this type of investment only works as prices rises - because if prices fall it becomes cheaper to live in your own home.
and you make a fair assumption about "Asians" however you are forgetting students are not going to university any more to study - they are doing it from their computers anywhere in the world, hence the recent and large investments by many renowned universities to introduce MOOCs (massive online open courses). If you think going to uni is a thing, you are living in the dark ages my friend.
that's the pure Aussie psyche right their "property - as safe as houses" your definition of sound and less volatile couldn't be further from the truth, take a look at the housing market index for Australia and tell me that's not volatile? sound? well after costs your returns are nothing for the risk you take on which is exemplified by the amount of leverage you need. tick tock....
further - everyone here keeps raving on about FUM and can only seem to argue that this is where their future earnings come from, but not their underlying investments? - seems like a bit of a paradox...
BLA constantly argue that alternatives are rising and will continue to - yes they have been, and the pure reason is because we are not in a normal bond/equity cycle and thus large funds/institutions/super funds have been moving down the risk curve to generate alpha. the problem now is that every man and his dog have been sold on the sexy 'alternative' theme - and as soon as some economic problem occurs the doors on 111 Eagle street will be knocked in as investors want their money to move to a safer spot.
I would urge anyone to seriously think twice before investing in alternatives if you think its "lower risk and less volatile"
BLA Price at posting:
$7.71 Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
