By Credit Suisse’s numbers, the way that the 10 largest A-REITs are trading implies their asset prices have dropped nearly $20 billion or 15 per cent so far this year. However, this did not mean actual deals were getting done at such big discounts, Mr Scasserra said.
He said listed deals would come out “in force” as interest rate rises slowed and inflation returned to long-term expectations.
Meanwhile, it has been slim pickings for real estate deal makers. With just over three months to go to the end of the year, real estate transactions had clocked in only $2 billion in volume – a third of the usual annual average of $6 billion.
Charter Hall’s David Harrison. Renee Nowytarger
Listed property valuations were also a sore spot for Charter Hall managing director and group chief executive David Harrison.
Speaking at an earlier session, Mr Harrison said equities investors had a tendency to desert REITs in “spook events” such as rising rates or inflation.
“Decades of history would tell you that when we’re trading these sorts of discounts, that doesn’t mean the direct property market is going to drop 30 per cent,” he said.
He said the gap between a REIT’s net tangible assets and share price was not a good indicator of underlying value.
“I’m not even going to guess how crazy the listed market is going to get because it’s not priced on intrinsic value,” he said.
