Insights

Inflation looks to be very slowly emerging from a long slumber and interest rates are heading north. This has significant implications for the world’s economy and global equity markets.

The study of populations is integral to real estate. Unlike the speculation, opinions and decisions of the most powerful in the world, nothing can stop the effect of demographics on the economy – it is the slow-moving beast that influences demand and thus resource allocation.

A cornerstone of our investment process is company management meetings and site visits. These meetings serve several purposes, including providing an insight into management—how they think and run their business—and whether management priorities align with ours as investors. Our Company Quality Grading process involves explicitly ranking company management, so first-hand contact is vital.

At Quay, this is one of our key investment philosophies – investing today should ensure one’s ability to have more tomorrow. That is, returns should always seek to beat the rise in the cost of living after fees and taxes.

In December 2015, we published a paper looking at the need for infrastructure investment around the world and why we believed the private sector was going to be an integral component in how that growth would be funded.

A decade on from the global financial crisis, Western economies are now growing in unison. US tax cuts passed before Christmas and continuing strong economic data are expected to further boost growth.

This is the second in our series of ‘Trip Insights’, where we share those experiences. It follows a trip in September/October 2017 when Sarah Shaw, 4D’s Global Portfolio Manager and Chief Investment Officer, and Christopher James, 4D’s Investment Analyst, completed an extensive company engagement and calling program beginning in Hong Kong and continuing to Japan and the United States.

At Quay, our approach to global real estate investing is somewhat different to our peers. 

Earlier this year, we spoke at the Bennelong Investment Forum. Our presentation included a number of charts, but for many, this one stood out