- March 2020 updated

When investors perform due diligence over prospective and current investments, related party transactions and fees are often key focus areas, particularly over “hidden fees” or debatable fees which may not be apparent pre-investment.

From a documentation perspective, governing documents are often vague or silent on how non-standard costs should be treated. As such, it is often left to the manager’s discretion to decide whether certain costs could or should be borne by the manager or by one or a combination of funds, managed accounts or other vehicles. This in turns may lead to conflicts of interest over fee allocation amongst different relevant mandates, especially if some are in promote/carry positions and some are under-water.

On 15th and 16th August 2019, ANREV hosted two round tables in Singapore and Hong Kong respectively, where a number of managers, fund administrators and advisors sat together and shared their experiences to identify current industry practices and learn from their peers in how they are meet investor demand for fairer and more transparent expense policies.

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ANREV Professional Standards Committee would like to thank the participants who have engaged in the discussion as well as Paul Walters from PwC who kindly helped to facilitate the discussion and wrote this paper.

To learn more about the committee please click here. For further information please contact [email protected]

The ANREV / INREV Management Fees and Terms Comparison Study compares the fees and cost structures of non listed real estate investment funds in Asia Pacific and Europe with a focus on total expense ratios (TERs) and real estate expense ratios (REERs). The report is based on the regional studies conducted by ANREV and INREV during 2018.

Some of the key findings identified in the report are as follow:

• TERs before and after performance fees are higher in Asia Pacific than in Europe
• Core funds in Asia Pacific have lower TERs than in Europe
• REERs are on average lower in Asia Pacific than in Europe

Please contact Draco Mok at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding the comparison study.

The ANREV Australia Core Open End Fund Monthly Index (ACOE) saw a total return of 0.37% in August 2019. The ACOE includes 19 funds with a total GAV of AUD 113.56 billion.

The ACOE index also reports data on geographic allocation by sectors.

Starting from this month, ANREV will be publishing a supplementary reports one month after every quarter showing aggregated gross returns on the 19 ACOE funds. The first gross return report shows a three months' total gross return of 1.52% for the period between July and September 2019.

Please contact Amélie Delaunay at [email protected] or Daisy Huang at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding the Index.

In the latest edition of our series on how technology is transforming the real estate industry, we take a closer look at “smart contracts”, the blockchain-based contract system which has been tipped to significantly streamline the real estate transaction process and revolutionise the industry.

If members have any questions, or require a more detailed explanation of any of the points referenced in this note, please contact the ANREV Technology and Innovation Working Group at the following e-mail address: [email protected]

This is the third fund termination study conducted by ANREV. The survey aims to examine the options fund managers consider as their funds approach their termination dates. The survey was conducted in October 2019 through a questionnaire. We received participation from 11 fund managers managing 19 non-listed real estate funds in Asia Pacific with a combined gross asset value (GAV) of US$4.4 billion.

The document is a distillation of information provided to ANREV by non-listed property vehicles, as well as publicly available information of other non-listed property vehicles, in order to give a view on the size and composition of the Asia Pacific non-listed property funds market over a particular period of time.

If you have any questions, please contact Daisy Huang at [email protected] or Kip kong at  [email protected]