The Irish people (it is said) are obsessed with property – perhaps as a post-colonial, post-famine signifier of wealth and status.
However those who stuck their hard-earned Trevelyan corn into managed and diversified property funds run by Irish LifeCo’s over the last decade and more – may not have exactly lost their knickers – but are hardly buying fur coats to celebrate.
The returns from these funds have been abysmal to say the least:
It is also important to note that the above are cumulative returns – which might put a better lipstick on this pig albeit the sheen diminishes when looking at the annualised performance relative to other investment options.
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Our Analysis
Obviously a retrospective ten year time horizon is not in itself sufficient to analyse such an asset class as a real estate portfolio (in any market). However the above funds are not even including those which have a commercial property bias (a discrete asset class which is under enormous downward pressure as office occupancy in most mature markets is now worse than 2009 circa.)
Irish Life has outperformed it’s peers it seems – perhaps their weighting in and long-standing knowledge of Irish property is the differentiator? (See also Irish Life v Zurich and Irish Life v New Ireland for other comaparator analyses*).
Most importantly, don’t put you eggs in one themed asset class basket (if you think you are confident and knowledgeable enough to invest in discrete asset classes such as tech etc then maybe do it yourself (but that is not for use to advise you upon).
For example contrast the property funds above with the more balanced (and superior) performance of more mixed asset pension/investment funds.
Do a deeper dive into more high risk but higher return alternatives:
Go woke…or go broke?
Are ESG funds yesterday’s biodegradable chip-wrapper or can greed be compatible with the planet’s needs?
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