The team behind Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust has its sights set on doubling its €240 million (£216 million) assets as advisers increasingly recognise the part it can play in an income-focused portfolio.
Lead manager Jeff O’Dwyer revealed the growth ambitions to the next generation of advisers at Sub35’s Pewterers’ Hall event.
“Our long-term aspirations are to grow the trust,” he said. “At the moment, because we’re trading at a discount [of around 8%], it’s very difficult to look at raising money, but what we can do is control the asset management side and create value as a method to improve the size of the vehicle.”
Launched in December 2015 to invest in direct property in ‘winning cities’, it has since met or exceeded its target dividend yield of 5.5%, making it a “compelling investment case” for income-seekers.
The portfolio focuses on major cities in continental Europe expected to grow faster than national averages amid rapid urbanisation. Germany, for example, has a population of around 80 million, 12-13 million of whom live in the five largest cities.
“There are a lot of smaller satellite cities that we don’t believe are sustainable and we’re seeing internal migration to the bigger cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Frankfurt – the winners,” said O’Dwyer. “These cities will typically grow 20-35% faster both from a GDP [gross domestic product] point of view and a population perspective.”
Key attributes of a winning city include diversified employment, tourism, an attractive place to live, work and socialise, leading universities and local authorities keen to invest.
“Infrastructure is one of the key things we focus on, using our local teams to identify where there are infrastructure changes,” said O’Dwyer, who draws on the expertise of more than180 real estate professionals on the ground in the markets in which he invests.
Six mega themes
The manager aims to capitalise on five long-term structural changes and an emerging sixth:
- Urbanisation – six million people move to a town or city every month, resulting in 40 mega cities across Europe by 2030 and 75% of the world’s population living in cities by 2050;
- demographics – a global population that will increase by one billion by 2030 with life expectancy at birth increasing by ten weeks every year;
- technology – data volumes set to grow tenfold by 2025 with 80 billion connected devices;
- resources and infrastructure – global demand for energy and food expected to increase by 30-40% over the next 20 years;
- emerging markets – China will be the biggest economy in the world by 2030 and the E7 will overtake the G7;
- impact investing – positively impacting the environment and society will provide higher returns in the long run.
The trust’s 13 assets are diversified across office, retail and industrial units and include a data centre in Apeldoorn, Holland, which plays to the technology theme; an office building in suburban Paris, France, which the Grand Prix transport connection will stop outside by 2026; and a shopping centre in Seville, Spain, which a local construction team recently refurbished, providing an employment boost to the area.
Five selling points
Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust:
- High quality and diversified portfolio of office, retail and industrial properties
- Owns 13 assets in growth cities in France, Germany, Holland and Spain
- Taps into six mega themes – urbanisation, demographics, technology, resources and infrastructure, emerging markets and impact investing
- Has achieved or exceeded target yield of 5.5% since launch in 2015 with current dividend yield fully covered by rental income
- Uses gearing modestly – capped at 35% loan-to-value and currently running at 28%