This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ALTERNATIVE real estate investment manager Qualitas has secured a $550 million investment, as Australia becomes the destination of choice for private debt.
The $550 million is Qualitas’ first commitment from a North American global investor and is set to be invested in commercial real estate private credit across construction loans, predevelopment land loans and investment loans.
This will bring Qualitas total funds under management to $8.6 billion representing a circa 42% funds under management increase since 30 June 2023.
“The Australian CRE private credit sector continues to attract allocations from global institutional investors and pleasingly Qualitas has achieved another record year of capital raising with net A$2.5 billion raised since 30 June 2023,” said Andrew Schwartz, group managing director and co-founder at Qualitas.
“We believe this new mandate, our first from an institutional investor based in North America, is a testament to our track record and increasing scale of our asset management platform, which enables us to deploy at scale for the right investment opportunities.”
Around 81% of Qualitas funds under management is invested in private credit and circa 83% is invested on behalf of institutional investors.
Additionally, Qualitas will co-invest up to $25 million over the life of the new mandate.
Global real estate investors are increasingly looking to Australia, with Japanese investors targeting the industrial and logistics sector and providing private finance for a new The Kube development in Sydney.
While Queensland property group CFMG Capital recently announced it was looking to raise $200 million t for a new private debt fund to develop more than 1,700 residential lots across south-east Queensland and Victoria.
Overseas buyers spent $4.9 billion on residential dwellings over the last financial year, though this represents a 27% dip in foreign investment into the residential sector.
