Published 5 April 2006
Westpac Funds Management Ltd has bought $A100 million of residential property from the Australian Defence Housing Authority as the seed asset for a new residential property trust, which is expected to be the first Australian residential reit.
The properties will be leased back to the authority under long-term leases to house Defence Force families.Sean McElduff, general manager of Westpac’s Specialised Capital Group, said: “We will now actively seek other assets to build this portfolio as we prepare this unique offer to the market, which is expected to be finalised by the end of 2006.”Residential reits are a well developed asset class in the US and we believe that such an offer will be well received by Australian investors. In Australia, this investment class has only been available through direct investment. We feel that a residential property trust is a natural fit for Westpac, given our extensive experience with this asset class.”The Defence authority manages 17,000 homes around Australia. It’s had a extensive acquisition & construction programme because it found direct leasing from local markets didn’t produce the required number & quality of properties.
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Attribution: Company statement, story written by Bob Dey for this website.
