The Contrarian Investor: What's the alternative?

The recent trials and tribulations surrounding alternative property group Brandeaux should not come as a great surprise.

I had written about their student property fund for my FT column – at the time it seemed like the most respectable way of playing the interesting theme of student property. But, almost immediately, a small gaggle of discretionary fund managers pointed me by email in the direction of the fund’s NAV chart and how it seemed to keep chugging upwards, steadily. “Just look at that long-term constant trend upwards, through thick and thin,” said one manager, “It just doesn’t add up, does it?” Student housing can be a volatile business, but Brandeaux’s model was always focused not on trading a...