Australian Listed Property Trusts In Light Of The Sub-Prime Crisis

Listed property trusts (LPTs), the Australian version of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) make up a large proportion of the Australian investment market. Currently $6Bn are invested in Australian LPTs. Since their emergence in the 1970s growth in this type of investment has been exponential and in recent years the business models employed by the LPTs have included much higher levels of gearing. This paper examines this market against the background of the sub-prime crisis emerging from the US financial markets and seeks to identify future developments in the Australian LPT market, and the repercussions, if any, of this crisis. Since December 2007 many of the leading Australian LPTs have shown negative returns in excess of 20% - with a number who appear to have significant overseas exposure well in excess of this percentage. The market capitalisation of many of the LPTs have declined well below the stated net asset backing of the funds. Since December 2007 the market capitalisation of many of the LPTs has fallen dramatically as the markets react to the sub prime crisis. The paper will review that changing market capitalisation of LPTs compared with the broader changes in the Australian Stock Exchange and compare those changes with change in the underlying value of commercial property in Australia through the use of secondary data. It is expected that the impact on consumer / investor confidence due to issues such as the sub prime crisis, the higher level of gearing adopted by many LPTs, the shorter term loans adopted, the apparent lack of disclosure of short and longer term finance and the valuation basis adopted has meant that there has been a market sell off of these securities.