LaSalle Investment Management (LaSalle) has shown interest in investing in the listed property trust (LPT) sector in Australia, as the sell-off in the sector has come cheaply relative to its asset value.
Todd Canter, the chief executive of LaSalle for the Asia Pacific, said: “The hard-hit Australian LPT sector has historically been a strong and stable performer relative to global equities and bonds.
“Currently, we see value in some of the property stocks, as the sell-off in the sector has resulted in a huge discount to net asset value,” he said.
The LPT sector has been the worst performing property securities market in the year so far. Recently, the LPT market has grown more volatile due to uncertainty about earnings, asset values and refinancing risk.
Canter advised investors to diversify into a global property securities portfolio, the subject of a recent white paper that he authored.
The study examined the impact of global and Australian property securities on a mixed asset portfolio of global stocks and bonds. The results indicated that investors would gain considerable benefits from adding Australian and global property securities to their equity and bond portfolios.
“Despite Australia’s strong history of returns in its LPT sector, investors should consider diversifying into a global property securities portfolio,” Canter said.
“Added return without added risk; that is the power of diversification and that is the power of property securities in a mixed-asset portfolio.”
