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22 January 2025
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After a big rally in 2019, institutions are far more pessimistic about 2020, and 83% expect a GFC-type event within the next five years. They see a strong role for active investing to reduce the downside.
The days of company boards making decisions in isolation from their shareholders have long gone, and investor expectations are rising across many cultural and social issues.
Investment solutions that were once only available to the big end of town are now available to anyone willing to learn the same lessons, research the available products and try some new approaches.
Institutional investors have little interest in investing in residential property due to the low yields and favourable taxation concessions offered to owner occupiers and retail investors.
Successful affordable housing initiatives in the UK and indications from Australian institutional investors that they would invest in a similar scheme here are encouraging developments.
Despite having one of the world’s largest pools of capital through the superannuation system, Australia’s institutional investors, including listed trusts, have shunned investment in private rental accommodation.
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
The housing market was subdued in 2024, and pessimism abounds as we start the new year. 2025 is likely to be a tale of two halves, with interest rate cuts fuelling a resurgence in buyer demand in the second half of the year.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
The renowned investor has penned his first investor letter for 2025 and it’s a ripper. He runs through what bubbles are, which ones he’s experienced, and whether today’s markets qualify as the third major bubble of this century.
Key lessons include expensive stocks can always get more expensive, Bitcoin is our tulip mania, follow the smart money, the young are coming with pitchforks on housing, and the importance of staying invested.
Check out the most-read Firstlinks articles from 2024. From '16 ASX stocks to buy and hold forever', to 'The best strategy to build income for life', and 'Where baby boomer wealth will end up', there's something for all.