Via The Australian:
The nation’s largest super fund, the $140 billion AustralianSuper, has revealed fears of a potential property market plunge, unveiling a contingency plan and warning members it will “freeze” property funds for up to two years in the event of a crisis.
AustralianSuper from mid-November will prevent members from investing more than 70 per cent of their savings in its property portfolio option, to which investors have flocked in recent years chasing high returns.
The fund has also changed its rules, giving it the right to freeze any attempts at withdrawing savings from the $1.7bn property option, prohibit the switching of funds out of the option, and stopping any new contributions into the option for a period of up to two years “in exceptional circumstances in response to a market stress event”.
…AustralianSuper mulled over the proposals following the momentary financial market panic triggered by the Brexit vote in 2016. In the wake of the referendum, property funds holding about £15bn ($27.7bn) were forced to suspend trading after they were stung by a flood of investors looking to pull their savings.
This is as much about preparing for a rout in commercial property, where the fund has been very active, as it is residential. As it should be, the bubble is obvious:
And when residential goes so does commercial, see the US bust:
Oh yeh.
