This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NUVEEN is partnering with Commonwealth Private to launch its first locally domiciled unit trust for Australian private wealth clients in Nuveen Global Cities Real Estate Fund.
The fund will serve as an Australian domiciled feeder into Nuveen’s listed global cities real estate strategy which provides exposure to private commercial property in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe across top performing sectors.
Commonwealth Private will serve as an anchor investor in Nuveen Global Cities Real Estate Fund, with CBA set to seed the fund.
The strategy will form part of the real estate portion of Commonwealth Private’s model portfolios for private wealth clients and will be available to other wholesale investors in Australia with a minimum investment of $100,000.
“We are delighted with our partnership with Commonwealth Private and they have been great to work with on our first Australian unit trust,” said Andrew Kleinig, managing director and head of Australia at Nuveen.
“Over the past few years, we have made excellent progress establishing the Nuveen brand in Australia, particularly within real estate, real assets, and impact investing. We look forward to bringing our institutional-grade investment strategies to wholesale investors across Australia.”
The main objective of the strategy is to achieve current income, diversification, and long- term capital appreciation with assets located in the top 2% of global cities that are well positioned for structural growth.
The listed real estate strategy’s structure offers monthly liquidity in a asset class which is otherwise illiquid. This is achieved through a share repurchase plan with no performance fees.
From Q1 2023, the portfolio included 495 properties with total assets valued at US$2.83 billion, a leverage ratio of 15.85%, and 98% occupancy rate.
“Real estate has traditionally offered investors a higher level of income, strong total returns, and lower volatility than many other asset classes, particularly in inflationary environments,” added Kleinig.
“With this in mind, we are confident that the industrial, housing, and healthcare parts of the real estate sector will continue to thrive.”
Earlier this year, Nuveen launched an Article 9 Global Real Estate Carbon Reduction strategy to cut back its carbon emissions through investment in listed real estate.
Nuveen is the fifth largest real estate investment manager globally and has over US$1.1 trillion assets under management.
