Pension fund switches some assets to property

PENSION investors should consider switching their investments from cash back into the property market, according to one prominent financial services executive, due to the increasingly attractive values in the marketplace.

Former Hibernian Insurance chief executive Adrian Daly – who now heads the so-called “funds supermarket” business, Source – which allows members of defined contribution schemes to choose from more than 140 different investment funds, managed by 10 different fund managers, as well as various investment strategies developed by the company, itself – has stated that his company has decided to progressively switch its current cash allocation of 10% into Irish property assets through the Irish Property Unit Trust.

“Current yields of 7.5% can sustain significant erosion of rental income and still compare very well with other asset classes,” according to Mr Daly.

This latest news marks the second major switch in asset allocation by Source in recent months.

In the final quarter of 2009, the company decided to reduce the equity allocation in its four “default investment strategies” by between 5% and 15% and switch the proceeds into index-linked Government bonds.

“We believe that this is a sensible and prudent shift in assets given the likely uncertainty in equity markets in the coming months,” Mr Daly said on the decision to reduce its equity allocation.

He added: “Obviously funds with a higher equity allocation benefited last year from the recovery in stock markets, but we believe that the global recovery in 2010 is likely to be uneven.”