creates opportunity and recently we have seen some significant changes in the way the stockmarket is behaving, where the opportunity lies is the question that investors need to ask themselves.
I’m a big advocate of diversifying your portfolio and providing a balanced spread across numerous asset classes. Over exposing yourself to one asset class not only increases the risks your taking but opens you up to emotional investing, buying when prices are high and selling out when prices are low. It is therefore important that investors consider investments such as property that have little or no correlation to the markets.
Listed or unlisted?
Current indicators show that the health of the Australian property market is heading in the right direction. The property sector shows a low level of vacancies and high rental growth, the economy is strong and the Reserve Bank is focused on keeping inflation under control.
The key question for many investors is, what is the best way to gain exposure to property within an investment portfolio? Do you use Listed Property Trusts (LPTs, now referred to as Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts or A-REITs) or unlisted direct property funds?
For many investors, the recent poor performance of LPTs over the last year has come as something of a surprise. Usually considered a relatively safe asset class the LPT sector has fallen 33.2% in the 12
