Natgen senior management attended the MSCI Private Assets briefing led by Head of Research Benjamin Martin-Henry. MSCI tracks institutional-sized commercial property transactions in Australia over 40 years, providing fund managers with key data to benchmark market trends.

Key takeaways included:

1. Property income remains resilient, with rental yields continuing to provide stability (see yellow bars in chart).
2. The market downturn is correcting, though recovery will be asset-specific rather than broad-based (see green bars in chart).
3. Transaction volumes rebounded in Q4, reaching post-COVID bounce levels.
4. Melbourne’s office market remains weak, with ongoing challenges. There continues to be a large price gap between where buyers and sellers wish to transact. It is expected that sellers will finally have to reduce their price expectations, to meet the market and close this gap.
5. Retail is performing strongly, particularly for assets acquired post-2020.

These insights reinforce Natgen’s investment strategy, which focuses on regional convenience retail, non-CBD office, specialist medical, industrial assets with rental reversion, and Natgen-led developments.