THE US Masters Residential Property Fund (ASX: URF) has raised over $68 million from a public offer, whilst another player Drapac is set to enter the arena.
The offer closed oversubscribed, having received applications from 1,716 investors, including approximately 350 new investors, for $68,465,769 (38,682,059 units).
The new units were issued at a price of $1.77 per unit, being the 10-day VWAP up to the close of trade on 20 May 2013 and the new units represent approximately 19% of units in the fund.
The fund’s responsible entity, Dixon Advisory’s managing director Alan Dixon said the current raising took the market capitalisation of the fund to over $370 million, making it one of the top 250 companies in Australia.
“The US housing market has reached a critical turning point.
“For the first time since 2006, US house prices have begun to increase steadily, with the composite 20-city S&P/Cash-Shiller Home Price Index, a key gauge for US home prices, up 9.3% from a year earlier,” he pointed out.
“We believe this dynamic will continue into 2013 and beyond, as the US housing market enters a new positive cycle. URF is the perfect vehicle to access this opportunity.
“It was the first, and remains the only, Australian-listed REIT focused solely on US residential housing, targeting the highly attractive New York metropolitan area. The positive results from the capital raising demonstrate the continued strong investor confidence in our strategy,” Dixon said.
However URF might not be the sole Aussie player in the US residential property market for long. Melbourne-based property company Drapac is reportedly looking to launch two new funds, seeking to raise $50 million to invest in US real estate.
Although Drapac’s funds, patriotically named Stars & Stripes will have different mandates.
At the same time, US-based property company Domus is seeking to float a fund on the local, which will also invest in US apartments.
Property Review
