Post-event materials - AREF Property Investors' Voice - October 2021

On the 20^th October 2021 AREF held its third Property Investors Voice call with investors in real estate funds discussing the issues affecting them.

The meeting was co-chaired by Peter Martin, Investment Officer, Medical Defence Union & member of the AREF Investor Committee, and the Chair of AREF’s Investor Committee, and Paul Richards, MD at AREF.

Investors discussed:

• CVAs – AREF is participating in a campaign, along with other associations, to explain to government how CVAs affect landlords such as real estate funds.

• ESG reporting – There is inconsistency in ESG reporting from fund managers and no common ESG metrics in use at present. AREF will be holding, jointly with MSCI a roundtable in early November for investors to discuss expanding the data in the index; including ESG data.
• Authorised property funds – There is a reluctance by investors to invest in authorised property funds due to the FCA and HMRC not confirming the conclusion of their consultations regarding these funds. AREF understood that this had been delayed until the rules had been put in place for the Long-Term Asset Fund.

Full notes from the session have been sent out to Investor Members. 

These sessions will be held quarterly, and are open to any and all qualified investors in property funds, no AREF membership is required. If you would like to join these 45 minute discussions look out for the invite through the events page. Let’s explore what matters to you as investors.

Author

Jacqui Bungay

Head of Policy and Company Secretary, AREF

Jacqui is AREF’s Company Secretary and provides policy guidance and secretariat services to AREF’s Board and Management Committee as well as many of AREF's committees and working groups.

Jacqui joined AREF in 2014 after working for over 25 years in fund compliance, client relationships and administration in the trustee and depositary sector.