GLOBAL - Leverage will continue to fall in the global real estate securities market, bringing down yields but lifting the sector's overall outlook, particularly in Asia and selected European markets like Germany, according to Urdang.
Alan Supple, portfolio manager at BNY Mellon Asset Management's global real estate investment specialist, said: "Markets generally have entered a lower return, less leveraged environment."
He added that the availability of credit would be "more constrained than in the past" in the property sector, and that companies had already raised cash levels.
Supple sees a continuation of the bias in the listed sector toward high-quality assets with long lease terms and good tenants.
"This means asset valuations are backed up by good cash flows," he said.
Further, he reiterated "the value of liquidity and transparency" attached to listed investments.
In the long term, Supple sees income as the most important element of the total return from property assets, which means a shift toward an "ever greater focus on income-bearing assets".
For the Urdang fund manager, good growth opportunities can be found in Asia, but he said he was still wary of regulatory risks in Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
He also sees continuing pressure in the euro-zone as a result of slower economic recovery than elsewhere and the continuing sovereign debt crisis.
However, Supple noted some attractive stock-picking opportunities in Germany, for example, which has shown "significant resilience".
Urdang also issued a cautious statement on the US, the world's largest property securities market.
Supple said: "The substantial outperformance of the US market in the first half of 2011 has led us to be a little more conservative about the outlook."
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