SQM Research has upgraded its Rating on the Australian Unity Health Care Property Trust to FIVE Stars

SQM Research has upgraded its rating on the Australian Unity Health Care Property Fund from a rating of 4.75 stars to 5.00 stars – the first such time that SQM Research has issued a five star fund in its ten year ratings history.

The fund has continued to deliver outperformance relative to benchmark and peers for a number of years now and has proven to be a good defensive play during periods of economic uncertainty.

The team continues to be lead by Chris Smith who has successfully acquired and managed some of the country’s best institutional quality health care real estate in Australia. Over the course of 2016, acquisitions have assisted in further diversifying the Fund at the geographical level and management has been able to renew debt instruments at increasingly favourable terms for the Fund’s investors.

Further, SQM believes that the health care property sector will continue to deliver solid results for property owners due to the unique specialist nature of the real estate and the ongoing growing underlying demand for hospitals, day centres and clinics in Australia, keeping in mind periods where capitalisation rates still rise and fall.

Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research, said “This is the first time we have issued a five star rating to any fund – a remarkable achievement for Chris Smith, his immediate investment team and Australia Unity. The reality is this is SQM’s highest rated fund across all major asset classes. The upgrade reflects our confidence that the fund will continue to outperform for the foreseeable future.”