Diversification offered rather than stellar gain

M&G believes investors should be looking to property for its diversification benefits and not in exp...

M&G believes investors should be looking to property for its diversification benefits and not in expectation of stellar returns in the future. John Cartwright, head of retail and institutional property funds at the group, said it is important to distinguish between property shares, which act like equities, and direct property, which behaves in a different manner altogether. Citing statistics on the UK market from December 1986 to August 2005 he noted direct property produced a standard deviation of 0.8% against 6.1% for property shares, 4.7% for equities and 1.6% for gilts. During this p...