Managed Funds CFS Property Funds

Thanks guys.

Thanks for the detailed response crc. I'm leaning towards sticking with Colonial at this stage, for all the reasons you mentioned. I really don't think I'm at the point where it would make much difference who managed my funds. Perhaps in the future I may consider it.

What are your (anyones) opinions on all the CFS property funds? I remember searching back when I started this thread, and there were alot of different funds. Though they all seemed to be performing relatively similarly.

I will go back through the CFS funds over the next few days, and hopefully select one within a week. I need to keep the ball rolling or I may end up becoming complacent.

Cheers.

 

I don't think there will be much differance between property funds, as there arn't very many property shares on our exchange, so returns are going to be fairly simular.

I believe CFS property securities fund is on the freeman fox recommended list. I'm personally invested with UBS property securities fund, but that fund has a min $20,000 entry. I have my parents invested with colonial property so I do like it as well.

 

Thanks again for all the help.

I have been looking through the CFS property funds. I was looking at this one in particular:
Fund Profile

The only concern I have is that all the CFS property funds seem to be heavily focused on income distributions.
Fund Details - CFS MIF - Property Securities Fund - Colonial First State Investments Limited - Direct Access Australia

Any ideas? Should I look elsewhere for a good growth fund, or stick with colonial and just reinvest all the income?

(I know, I know. Those are questions only I can answer. But other opinions would be nice).

Cheers.

 

I have about $2000.00 in that fund at the moment.

I have been in it just over a year with margin lending and the growth has not been very good. The unit price has basically same since August(may be about 2-3c increase) and the dividend return (dec & june), from memory did not cover my margin lending costs or the management fee. But I am going to stay in there for two reasons: (1) to keep me interested in property securies (2) even though I am losing money, I want to see how it's performing because I am a long mid-long term investor.

 

You can monitor a CFS's unit prices without having an investment with them

Colonial First State: Price and performance

 

Property by default is high yielding (I mean commercial property which is what these funds invest in). If your not after yield, but growth, then your better investing into growth shares.

The other option is, if you gear into your listed commercial property investment, then the interest on your loan will offset some/most of the yield the listed property trust produces.

This is what I have done.. I don't purely invest with tax in mind.. I want exposure to LPT's, and if paying more tax is the consequence, then thats the cost of doing business. Plus if you gear into low yielding funds, or growth funds, you can offset the interest on those funds against the higher yielding funds..

The other option is if you invest into international property, or a geared international property fund like CFS Colliers International Property. This fund has low yield.

 

LPT's aren't a growth asset. Commercial property is more of a income based investment.

You cant look at a sector and dismiss it cause it didn't make you money over the last 12 months,, as you rightfully said, its a long term investment and each year a different sector will be a winner..

 

Well, after some consideration I'm thinking about biting the bullet and putting $5,000 into one of Colonials property funds.
I'm leaning towards this fund at the moment:
Fund Details - CFS MIF - Property Securities Fund - Colonial First State Investments Limited - Direct Access Australia

It seems as good an option as any at this stage. Unless anyone has any objections?

After this I'm planning to find an international share fund (most likely keeping with colonial again), and then maybe an international property fund, or small companies fund.
I'm planning to stick with Colonial to set up these 4-5 funds, and then make regular contributions which will be distributed evenly across my portfolio.

Does this sound like a reasonably good plan?
Each fund will probably be opened with $5,000, which would make my initial investment around about $20,000, before any other contributions are made.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

Just remember if you put $5000 into a geared fund, its giving you exposure to $10,000 worth of stock. So if your looking to have a even balance, then you may need to put more into the ungeared options.

Good thing with that property fund is that it will pay distributions which can offset margin loan interest at tax time.

You could also consider putting a smaller allocation into a Asia fund and Global resources fund. Global Infrastructure could also be something to consider.

Good to hear your building your investments. $20k is a great start, well done!