Vantage: Exploring real estate as a hedge for inflation with TR Property’s Marcus Phayre-Mudge

As inflation continues to be a focus, it’s a good time to look at real assets. Vantage focuses on real estate as we speak to Marcus Phayre-Mudge, a veteran property investor and manager of TR Property Investment Trust. Marcus talks to us about finding index-linked physical and listed real estate assets which offer a hedge to inflation and tap into future rental growth. His fund invests in UK and European listed real estate and UK physical property. We learn about the long-established team and how it researches opportunities, including a focus on company management. We explore the impact of Brexit, what the future looks like for office working in a post-pandemic era, whether logistics remains attractive, whether it’s time to start looking at retail as an asset class and what ‘alternative’ property subsectors Marcus is looking at. Quality of the working environment and ESG combine in an interesting theme of the ‘green building supercycle’, which Marcus looks to play through teams that have a track record of retrofitting buildings including Derwent London (DLN.L), Helical Bar (HLCL.L), Great Portland Estates (GPOR.L), Arima Real Estate (ARM.ES) and VIB Vermögen (VIH1.F). When I asked what has surprised Marcus the most, he said it was the returns generated from an asset class that is far from racy.