This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE ASX-listed Qualitas Real Estate Income Fund (QRI) has been added to the All Ordinaries Index and has also been classified by Standard & Poor’s as a mortgage real estate investment trust (MREIT), making it the only listed fund in Australia to be given the classification.
The All Ords listing took effect prior to the opening of trading yesterday.
MREITs are companies or trusts that service, originate, purchase and/or securitise commercial and/or residential mortgage loans.
Alternative real estate investment manager, Qualitas Limited (QAL) is the manager of QRI.
Mark Power, head of income credit, Qualitas, said that QRI’s classification as an MREIT is due to the fund’s singular commercial real estate credit investment focus.
“The classification to MREIT means that QRI may potentially be considered and evaluated for ASX300 and ASX300 A-REIT inclusion in the future
“While future inclusions in these indices is not certain and solely determined by S&P, we are very pleased that this development opens up these possibilities.”
Power said that while S&Ps definition of MREITs is global, QRI differs from many US MREITs in that there are no liabilities in QRI, other than the warehouse facility between Qualitas and QRI, which means the fund benefits fully from rising interest rates passed through for variable rate loans.
