RMIT Property Staff wins API National Award for PhD research

Dr Wejen Reddy received the Australian Property Institute (API) 2015 Peter Barrington Gold Medal prize at the API Victorian State Conference in August 2016, awarded for his PhD thesis entitled: “Australian Managed Funds: Investment Strategies and Property Allocation”. The Peter Barrington Award, established in 1985, is a national award to encourage research and excellence in the study of land economy/ property finance through the presentation of a major work in support of an approved academic program. Dr Reddy’s PhD thesis was examined by a panel of prominent API Institute Fellows who judged the award, including leading property academics and industry practitioners.

The PhD research was published in 2014 at RMIT University, supervised by Professors David Higgins and Ron Wakefield. The thesis investigated the property asset allocation strategies, decision-making processes and frameworks for the A$2.0 trillion Australian fund management industry including the large superannuation funds. In addition, the performance of the Australian industry superannuation fund balanced investment option strategic portfolio is compared against ten alternative investment strategies to examine how the property allocation changes with different asset allocation models. The research provided evidence that for an Australian superannuation balanced fund, there is scope to increase the property allocation level from current 10% to 19% with the benefit of stable risk-adjusted returns. The results have also been published in a number of leading A-rated property research journals.

Author: Wejen Reddy