Lowy family-backed Assembly closes out property fund with $67m raising

“With immigration returning and the supply chain problems clogging up the market, you could end up with a reduction in supply [relative to demand],” the former Westfield chief operating officer told The Australian Financial Review.

“So the market could soon be up and running again,”

In the industrial space, where AFM has made a number of acquisitions, there existed similar strong underlying demand, Mr Gutman said.

“We still like that space, though the market has adjusted and is adjusting,” he said.

“So we will look at opportunities in [both] the residential and industrial markets,”

Since launch in September 2019, AFM has committed about $290 million of equity into 13 investments. These include buying a Harvey Norman-anchored homemaker centre in inner Melbourne in 2020 and two warehouses in Melbourne’s south-east last year.

In April, AFM beefed up its industrial exposure further, purchasing two last-mile delivery properties in Melbourne for a combined $53 million. It also has investment in Sydney childcare centres.

The fund is targeting annual net total return to investors of 10-12 per cent, of which half is paid out as an annual distribution.

“With the additional equity secured and other shorter term recycled assets the fund has around $300 million of firepower to secure attractive counter-cyclical opportunities emerging in the current dynamic environment,” Mr Gutman said.

“We’re negotiating on a bunch of opportunities, [but] things are a little quiet at the moment,” he said.