This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
REAL estate assets under management held by Australian managers grew by 4.7% to $316 billion in 2019, with industrial property giant Goodman Group retaining its lead.
According to the latest Fund Manager Survey launched by ANREV, INREV and NCREIF, Goodman Group remains Australia’s largest real estate fund manager by AUM, with $52 billion.
In second place was Charter Hall with $38.9 billion in AUM followed by Lendlease with $36.5 billion. Although Charter Hall was at distant second, its 2019 ranking marks a significant jump up from fifth place in 2018 when the firm had total real estate $28.4 billion AUM.
Last year, Goodman had total real estate AUM of $39.6 billion, while Lendlease had $34.1 billion.
Top 10 Australian fund managers by total real estate AUM (AUD billion)
However, ranked on their real estate AUM earmarked for Asia Pacific (which includes Australia and the rest of the region), Charter Hall leads the Australian managers’ ranking with $38.9 billion, followed by Goodman with $35 billion and Lendlease with $34 billion.
Top 10 Australian fund managers by APAC AUM (AUD million)
In the global ranking of fund managers by Asia Pacific real estate AUM, Charter Hall and Goodman ranked fifth and sixth respectively. CapitaLand maintained its top spot, with $139.8 billion of real estate AUM, followed closely by ARA Asset Management Limited with $92.9 billion and GLP ranked third with $70.7 billion.
Director of research Amélie Delaunay said the rise in Australian asset managers’ real estate AUM in 2019 reflects positivity among the investment community about Australian fund managers’ performance in the local real estate market and the success of some managers’ foray into foreign markets.
“Domestically, Australian real estate enjoyed strong fundamentals in 2019 in sectors such as office and logistics and benefitted from renewed optimism about Australia’s economic outlook, which materialised over the course of the year,”
However, Delaunay said COVID-19 has created significant uncertainty in the real estate market, which if prolonged could risk a major devaluation of assets.
“While the impact on the real estate industry in Australia is yet to be fully seen, investors globally have consistently ranked the country their top investment destination over the years on the back of strong fundamentals, making it an important component in long-term investors’ portfolio and source of diversification,” she concluded.
