KEY POINTS:
An Auckland research consultancy is examining the prospects of a private equity attack on our property market.
Stephen Saul, Jones Lang LaSalle's new national director of research and consulting based in Auckland, said the topic was relevant because of the private equity stampede in the United States and Australia.
Private equity funds were increasingly active in buying public real estate companies overseas, he said. A wall of money was chasing all forms of assets but property was easy to gear up.
The ease of securing real estate with debt had played a central role in private equity buyouts targeting the real estate sector globally, he said.
Saul wondered whether the trusts listed on the NZX could easily become takeover targets, since their structures could provide a barrier for private equity funds because of the separation of the manager from the fund.
He asked: "Will the smaller average size of real estate publicly listed companies here be a deterrent to private fund investment?
"Will regulatory barriers to investment be erected?"
A Harvard University graduate with 28 years' experience in commercial and real estate, Saul has been chief financial officer of a public real estate investment trust listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the last 10 years.
