News

Nominations are now open for the PFA Innovation in Sustainability Award which acknowledges Property Funds that have implemented groundbreaking and inventive approaches toward environmental sustainability within their real estate holdings.

ASIC’s focus on private credit is a key theme for 2025 as the regulator reviews private markets with an eye to ‘improving transparency’. Part of this sharper focus on private credit lending includes issuing notices to retail private credit managers.

ASIC 2025 enforcement priorities – new focus on ‘unscrupulous’ property investment schemes:

ASIC has placed what it calls ‘unscrupulous property investment schemes’ firmly in its sights as parts of its enforcement priorities for 2025.

Unlisted property fund managers should heed ASIC’s two recent wins in enforcing DDO, and take the opportunity to review their compliance with the regime, according to Charlie Renney, Senior Associate at Hall & Wilcox Lawyers.

Sam Sproats is an Executive Director Funds Management, for Growthpoint Properties Australia, an ASX-listed Real Estate Investment Trust which invests in high quality industrial and office properties across Australia. Sam has more than 28 years of experience in real estate funds management, and currently leads Growthpoint’s funds management business.

ASIC has released a report on DDO (ASIC REP 795), which offers more guidance on distribution practices for product issuers, including consumer questionnaires and Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws will be expanded and simplified under legislation introduced to Parliament by the Attorney-General in September 2024.

In yesterday’s boom market there was limited time for due diligence, which sometimes meant essential steps were overlooked, according to Dimity Lee, Associate Director of Investment Valuation and Capital Markets Advisory at Preston Rowe Paterson.

Property Funds Association of Australia (PFA) has been invited to present to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJC), regarding wholesale investor and client test thresholds, on 4 October 2024.

In commercial property ESG presents a major opportunity to meet the growing expectation of investors for cleaner, greener, more socially conscious and well-governed investments, according to Damien Connell, Principal: Circular Economy at boutique consulting firm, Ratio Consultants.

Property Funds Association of Australia (PFA) met with ASIC on 10 September as part of a regular schedule to discuss key issues relating to unlisted property funds, including ASIC’s current regulatory and enforcement priorities.

A key decision in Oliver Hume Property Funds (Broad Gully Rd) Diamond Creek Pty Ltd v Commissioner of State Revenue [2024] VSCA 175 (8 August 2024) by the Victorian Court of Appeal could have far-reaching consequences for the levying of landholder duty on unlisted property funds.

Read the latest update form the Issues & Regulatory Committee.