Paladin wins property fund award

The Deutsche owned Paladin Property Securities has been recognised for its performance in the property investment market with an award of best overall fund by Property Investment Research (PIR).

The fund achieved a rating of AA- from the research house and beat off contenders Westpac, Colonial First State, APN, Lend Lease and Australian Unity for the best manager award.

PIR assessed a total of 13 retail property funds in Australia and found that Paladin had consistently delivered the best results both in before and after tax returns for the past three years. Lend Lease's Property Securities Fund also found favour with the research house for the same reasons.

"[Paladin's] fees are also among the lowest in the sector and distributions in 2000 provided investors with a yield of 7.6 per cent," says PIR managing director Richard Cruikshank.

The research house says that Deutsche's acquisition of Paladin in July last year has enhanced the fund's standing in the property trust market. This represents a turnaround in perception of the Paladin fund, from that of last August where the fund had a hold notice slapped on it by Assirt which was concerned about Deutsche's intentions of merging Paladin's trusts with its own funds.

Paladin fund manager Sean Murray confirms Deutsche's acquisition has had benefits to the property fund.

"Deutsche has provided access to the equity market as well as providing us with analysts who research into the broader market and come up with insights into what trends are taking place in the business world," he says.

Previously this type of research was an ex-house service obtained from all over Australia.

On how Paladin has managed to outperform the property trust market at large, Murray again points to the contribution made by the analysts.

"We have dedicated analysts in the industrial, office, diversified and retail areas who can dig a little deeper to try and identify where the medium to long term value is," he says.

Murray believes that there are signs in the general economic conditions that bode well for property investments. He points to the retail sales and consumer spending as good signs for the economy and indirectly the property market.

"We've seen the office sector a bit reluctant to go out and take new space," he says. "Hopefully this will come to an end in the next six months. Also, there is some suggestion that investors are taking a defensive position and moving back into property investments."

Murray expects real estate to perform better in the next 12 months.

The Paladin Property Securities Fund currently has $1.4 billion under management.