‘Panic’ withdrawals in UK property market as ANZ warns of ’08 repeat

ANZ has warned investors to “brush up on your 2008 playbook”, as four more property funds in the UK freeze redemptions, bringing the total to seven. “Investors are starting to learn the hard way that a convenient online redemption request form does not a liquid asset make. The global rush for yield in recent years, prompted by record-low interest rates, has seen investors get into all kinds of assets for which, one fears, many do not understand the liquidity risks. If investors en masse start to focus on the return of their money rather than the return on it, then we don’t have to look very far back in history to see how it plays out,” ANZ said in their note. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney Bestinvest said “the problem with open-ended funds is you do start to have panic selling, so you really have no choice but to suspend the fund. There’s an inevitability to this now.”