Industry embraces MaxCap forum as ‘the event’ for 2015

The robust panel discussion that featured leaders in their fields of real estate development, planning, economics and finance challenged the seasoned crowd, which included many of Australia’s leading developers along with senior representatives from the big four banks, at The Developers and Dealers Forum 2015 on August 6 in Melbourne, Australia.

The expert panel comprising Mirvac CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, economist Saul Eslake, ElenbergFraser Director Callum Fraser, Metro Property Development CEO Luke Hartman and MaxCap Group Partner and CIO Brae Sokolski, debated the state of the property market and the Australian economy.

Click here to watch the short video wrap of the event.

The unified sentiment of the panel discussed the need for a broader and deeper apartment supply base to address the housing shortage, unaffordability issues and population growth observed in the eastern seaboard’s capital cities, which is in contrast to the media’s misinformed representation of a potential ‘oversupply’ scenario.

Another key takeaway was the requirement of institutional investment to play its part as Australia evolves as a more sophisticated financial market that offers a greater number of funding sources in addition to the four major banks.

Master of Ceremonies, Tom Elliot from leading radio station 3AW,  asked the panel how future projects would be funded, given the pressure on Australian banks to reduce their exposure to commercial property following significantly tougher capital adequacy requirements imposed by APRA, Australia’s Prudential Regulation Authority.

MaxCap Partner and CIO Brae Sokolski is preparing for foreign banks, Asian capital and institutional capital from local and international sources to fill the vacuum.

“It’s inevitable that super funds will participate in real estate debt as they have in the UK and the US”, Mr Sokolski said.