Pretoria - Pangbourne Properties, the listed property investment company, has acquired a 34 percent stake in listed property loan stock company iFour Properties, in deals valued at R111.4 million.

Property company Pangbourne Properties (PAP) has announced that it has agreed to collectively acquire from Growthpoint Properties and the Mine Employees Pension Fund (MEPF) 17.854 million iFour (IFR) linked units at 572 cents per linked unit for an aggregate consideration of R102.125-million.

THE decision to diversify investment into listed property securities by property loan stock company Growthpoint seems to be paying off with the group reaping a 9,2% or R60,5m capital appreciation in three months from these investments.

GROWTHPOINT Properties could become the largest listed property fund on the JSE Securities Exchange SA if speculation that it is vying for the assets of Primegro Properties is true.

Tempers are wearing thin in the JSE Security Exchange's real estate sector, where burgeoning investment funds compete for slim pickings of scrip in 20 property unit trusts (PUTs) and property loan stock companies (PLSs).

REDEFINE Income Fund CEO Peter Penhall has challenged criticism of the hybrid property loan stock company structure, saying specialist equity managers would not necessarily have the depth of knowledge of the property market a hybrid's manager has.

Growthpoint's decision to invest in a portfolio of linked units signals the growing popularity of a hybrid property loan stock structure, but questions about the merit of this hybridity remain.

But listed sector is starting to offer good buying opportunities for investors

GROWTHPOINT, an Investec Properties-managed fund, is expanding through a number of projects.

But some PUT’s and PLS’s are starting to look cheap.