Property slides as investors turn to shares
Shares have overtaken residential property as the investment of choice for Australians, according to a survey by Macquarie Investment Management.
Macquarie found that of 850 people polled for the survey, 38 per cent said they held or would invest in direct shares, including property security trusts, in the next 12 months.
By contrast, only 21 per cent said they currently hold or plan to invest directly in property over the coming year and 32 per cent said they held or would invest in term deposits.
"For decades Australians have had a love affair with the idea of buying a property or two in an area they know - maybe down the road from where they live," says Bruce Terry, head of retail funds management at Macquarie. "Often this has been the cornerstone of the conventional Australian personal investment strategy."
The poll also shows that property securities are less popular and well known than share investments in general.
However, Macquarie says the returns from property securities trusts (unlisted unit trusts investing in listed property securities) are superior to residential property because of the higher entry costs of owning residential property and the large sums of money needed for such items as legal fees, stamp duty and borrowing costs.
"Effective individual players in the direct non-residential property market usually can't afford to buy a whole building and also need considerable property management expertise," Terry says.
"In addition, there is a risk of being stuck with investments that usually cannot be traded overnight."
The study was commissioned for the launch of the new Macquarie Property Securities Trust in order to better understand investors' attitudes to unit trusts that invest in the specialised listed property trust segment of the sharemarket.
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