Battle of the property plays in a risk-averse environment

SINGAPORE (Dec 6): Maybank Kim Eng is maintaining a “neutral” stance on Singapore’s property sector while positioning defensively at the lower end of the risk spectrum, expressing a preference for exposure to stable platforms over trading portfolios.

“With another challenging year ahead for the physical market, we struggle to turn more positive on property counters despite cheap valuations,” comments analyst Derrick Heng in a Monday report.

“We prefer exposure in office REITs [over developers] ahead of a potential bottom in early 2018. Office REITs trade at a discount to their underlying office assets despite strong institutional interest in office properties and high replacement cost as evidenced by elevated land prices,” he explains.

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