Global Listed Property Investors returned around 16% (ZAR Total Return) for the first quarter of 2013. Japan was the best performing region by far, rallying on aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. The next best performing region was Hong Kong, outperforming Property Developers in the region as China announced further policy tightening to tame rising residential property prices. North America also had a good quarter despite expensive valuations as the recovery in the region seemed to gain further traction. The worst performing regions was the UK followed by Continental Europe. The problems in Europe seem to be far from over as some banks in Cyprus ran into financial trouble. The best performing stocks overall were Daiwa Office Investment Corporation (Japan) and Activia Properties Inc. The worst performing stocks overall were IVG Immobilien AG and Nieuwe Steen Investments NV.

The South African Rand weakened close to 8.3% against the US Dollar over the quarter. In the STANLIB Global Property Fund, Europe and Australia made the biggest contribution to relative return with Nepi and Growthpoint Australia having the biggest attribution. Underweight allocations to North America and Japan were the biggest detractors to relative return with Simon Property Group and Omega Healthcare Investors having the biggest negative attribution. Healthcare REITs in North America had a strong rally during the quarter while large cap listed property underperformed the smaller stocks as more money flowed into listed property stocks with secondary quality properties and higher yields. Also, aggressive monetary easing around the globe is causing most markets to rise despite valuations. JREIT valuations are looking stretched.

The aggressive policy easing by the bank of Japan will likely prove to have been another turning point for the world economy, although the question whether it will bring Japan out of deflation without breaking anything else in the process remains despite assurances that "this time is different". The Yen is also at risk of significant devaluation which will impact the global economy in some way. The global property universe, which includes Property Investors and Property Developers, is trading at a slight discount to NAV although finding value within Property Investors is becoming more difficult. Expected earnings growth for the property universe for 2013 is around 4.6%. The STANLIB Global Property Fund has an implied forward yield of around 3.6%