While many fund managers are promoting the advantages of investing in developing real estate markets in regions such as Asia, chief executives at Macquarie feel the US is still an attractive market for investors due to factors like cultural similarities to Australia as well as recent market trends.

 In particular, trends affecting both the US discount commercial convenience real estate and the US distribution warehouse sectors have made them particularly attractive for investors looking to earn a steady income stream from rents.

In regard to discount commercial convenience real estate the trend has been a move by consumers away from traditional retail department stores.

In terms of the distribution warehouse space, the overriding trend has been for the storing of inventory in fewer more centralised hubs to make distribution more efficient.

The US being a big country has certain hubs and we’ve seen national distributors reduce the locations in which they hold stock down from say 20 locations to maybe five.

It’s all about getting the stock to the hub and getting it out more quickly. What that’s meant is bigger warehouses with the systems within the warehouses being more sophisticated.

US fund managers and Macquarie business partners, DDR and ProLogis, specialise in investing in discount commercial convenience real estate and distribution warehouses respectively.

Australian investors can only gain access to these managers’ core investment activities through two listed property trusts, the Macquarie DDR Trust and the Macquarie ProLogis Trust.

 Edwina Baniqued