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Johannesburg - SA commercial property investors earned better returns in their own backyard than in offshore real estate markets, the latest report from Cape-based Catalyst Fund Managers shows.
Catalyst figures released on Thursday confirmed that while SA property stocks are still trading in the red for the year to date, the JSE's R91bn real estate sector is holding up better than its US, UK, European and Australian counterparts.
The SA listed property index delivered a total return of -0.45% from January to May 2009, compared to -18.8% for the global property investors' index. The latter is compiled by UBS Securities and tracks the performance of listed property markets in the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia.
SA also outperformed in US dollar terms with a total return of 19.6% compared to -2.5% for the global index. Although the SA listed property index is still down about 20% from its 2007 peak, the sector has recorded a total return of 21.32% for the 12 months to end-May 2009.
Property analysts said SA's relative outperformance is due to local property companies being far more conservative in terms of gearing and property valuations than many offshore real estate players.
The SA listed property sector, therefore, does not face the same refinancing risks as its offshore counterparts where liquidity problems have forced banks to start calling in loans.
Catalyst Fund Managers MD André Stadler said a key attraction of SA property stocks is that companies are still recording healthy growth in the income that they distribute to investors.
Despite local property companies starting to see an uptick in vacancies and rental arrears in their shopping centre, office and industrial portfolios, Stadler said income growth is still expected to beat inflation over the next few years.
Stadler noted market consensus is that income payouts (distributions) will slow to around 8% to 9% this year (12% in 2007) and remain around the 8.5% mark for the next two to three years. That means an investor who buys into the sector at a current average income yield of 9.4% will see the income earned on every R100 invested grow from an initial 940c to 1 200c in year three.
According to Catalyst's figures, the SA listed property sector's top performer for the year to date is Pretoria-based Premium Properties with a total return of 11.9%.
That is followed by Redefine Income Fund (10%), hotel niche fund Hospitality B (9.6%), ApexHi C (9.6%) and industrial-focused Capital Property Fund (5.8%). The sector's bottom five for the year to date are Sycom Property Fund, Growthpoint Properties, Hyprop Investments, Octodec Investments and Pangbourne Properties with total returns ranging from -8.3% to -2.9%.
- Fin24.com