Recap of a great event: PFA 2019 conference
Posted date: May 24th 2019 . Author Gregory Preston .
This year, the Property Funds Association of Australia chose to host their annual conference in Hobart. It was a fully registered event, beating last year with over 100 industry peers attending from all around Australia.
On the first day, attendees could choose to spend the day at the golf course or the Mona Museum.
This was followed by a Welcome Cocktail Party and Gala Dinner
The theme for 2019 was “Critical Change – Crisis, challenge or catalyst for property investment?” which was explored over the second two days.
The Property Funds Association organised a great selection of keynote speakers who delved into the depths and analysed these topics. Many of them are leaders in their industry, with some from the banking sector, property institutions and more.
Here are our key takeaways from the presentations:
- Prediction that there will be an increase in merger and acquisition activity in the next 12 months;
- Core returns are tight at the moment;
- For the 2018 financial year, Australia had the highest rate of property acquired by offshore capital within the Asia Pacific Region;
- A majority of Asian investment was focused on the office sector but it appears that there is a growing demand in the industrial sector which is expected to overtake retail in 2019;
- The industrial sector is the preferred class of real estate investment with the lowest vacancies rates of all the property sectors;
- Settlement risk for off the plan contracts of residential apartments has been significantly elevated over the last 12 months by falling values;
- High-density residential approvals are back to 2013 levels and trending to fall even lower;
- Returns from debt funds are attractive to investors but be aware of risk levels; and
- ESG is coming for fund management and responding to investor requirements. This includes social responsibility, employee satisfaction and modern working practices.
The speakers also participated in a formal panel at the end of each day where members in the audience could get their questions answered.
One question that stood out was directed at Penny Ransom from Investa where she was asked how she kept staff informed and motivated when Oxford acquired Investa. During this time, competing parties were interested in Investa’s fund. Penny motivated her staff by encouraging them to continue to buy mexican tramadol online demonstrate the reasons why so many parties were interested in their fund through their professionalism, attention to detail and always keeping compliance in mind.
As Preston Rowe Paterson is a sponsor for this year’s conference and an on-going contributor to the Property Funds Association, we appointed three of our staff to attend the conference and represent the company.
If you did not get a chance to meet all of them, here is a quick career profile on Greg, Neal and Andrew.
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Greg PrestonManaging Director Greg Preston founded Preston Rowe Paterson in 1988 and built it into a successful property firm dealing with all types of real estate. Today the company operates from all around Australia, New Zealand and Asia. P: +61 2 9292 7400 |
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Neal SmithAssociate Director Neal Smith has been with us since 2007 and is a property valuation veteran with over 47 years’ experience in the industry. P: +61 2 9292 7400 |
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Andrew BatesAssociate Director Andrew Bates has been with just for just over a year now. He was previously working in the busy city of London and has over 13 years’ experience. P: +61 2 9292 7400 |
Greg, Neal and Andrew took away some great insights and information from the conference and have shared their learnings with the wider team.
If you would like to learn more about Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney and what we can offer you, please visit our website.
2019 was another successful year for the PFA conference. We hope everyone had a great time and took away as much valuable information as we did. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
