Five of Top 10 performing funds are Charter Hall Direct funds

Charter Hall's Direct Property business continues to deliver market leading returns for investors with its funds holding five of the top 10 ranked positions in the Property Council/IPD Unlisted Core Retail Property Fund Index for the 12 months to January 2016.

Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) today announced its Direct Property business continues to deliver market leading returns for investors with its funds holding five of the top 10 ranked positions in the Property Council/IPD Unlisted Core Retail Property Fund Index for the 12 months to January 2016.

Over the year to January 2016 the core retail unlisted property sector outperformed the Australian share market, Australian fixed income and Australian listed REITs on a one, three and five-year basis according to leading industry analysts in research for the Property Council of Australia undertaken by MSCI. 

Australian core unlisted property (retail and SMSF investor funds) provided a total return of 27.9% in the 12 months to January 2016, out-performing all other major asset classes for this period.Longer term (five year) results for the various sectors were: unlisted retail property funds 17.2% pa; REITs 14.6% pa; Australian bonds 9.1% pa; and Australian equities 5.6% pa.

MSCI is a leading global property global analyst and producer of commercial real estate indices with a property database of 80,000 institutional held properties valued in excess of A$1.7 trillion across 33 countries.

The Australian index run by MSCI is The Property Council/IPD Unlisted Core Retail Property Fund Index and comprises 29 funds. The 12 fund managers represented in the index are Australian Unity, Centuria, Charter Hall and Cromwell and a range of other smaller boutique industry participants. 

The number one performing fund was the Charter Hall Direct Office Fund (DOF) - Wholesale A unit class, recording a 58.1% return over 12 months and 24.8% pa over three years. 

DOF benefited materially from the sale of an asset on Sydney’s lower north shore after Charter Hall worked through a long term project to transform its use to a mixed-use residential site. DOF, which invests in a high quality, long leased Australian office portfolio, is currently open to investment with an income yield of 6.6% pa and a minimum investment of $20,000. DOF is likely to close shortly with less than $15 million of equity investment capacity available.

Charter Hall’s Head of Direct Property, Nick Kelly said “The performance results detailed in the index were a significant pointer to the strong performance of unlisted property funds and Charter Hall’s pre-eminent position in the sector.”

“Having the top performing fund, and four more in the top 10, is a testament to the skills, discipline and business model of Charter Hall.  Where we can, we take material positions in markets, selective decisions in asset acquisition and transformational investments that add value for our clients.”

DOF’s Fund Manager, Steven Bennett, said “The exceptional outcome for DOF investors this year follows repositioning of an asset and the acquisition of accretive investments, resulting in DOF becoming Australia’s longest lease duration office fund with an average lease expiry of over 9 years. In the background, our team is working tirelessly on other such opportunities across the broader platform.”

“The results speak volumes for the benefits of investing in quality commercial property and for selecting the right fund manager with a strong ability and track-record in adding value.”

Charter Hall Direct has another compelling investment opportunity available for investment that will close in 2016. The Direct Industrial Fund No.3 (DIF3) is the third in a series of unlisted industrial property funds specialising in owning long-leased industrial assets, with a track-record of outperformance of peers and benchmarks. DIF3 is currently offering an income yield of 7.0% pa. DIF3 follows Charter Hall Direct Industrial Fund No.2, the sixth best performing fund and the original Charter Hall Direct Industrial Fund, rounding out the top 10.