Property services company the Denison Group is looking to transform the company into a diversified funds management firm.
"We are looking at evolving the business into a fund management company," Denison Group chief executive Matthew Burrows said.
The company has historically been offering single-asset funds, but Burrows wanted the company to expand into property syndicates, development funds, as well as other straight property funds.
Its first expansion has been the establishment of the Denison Development Fund, which invests in a portfolio of secured property development and trading exposures.
The new fund aims to raise up to $25 million.
The Denison Group chief executive Matthew Burrows said the financial crisis had dramatically changed the market for property developments in Australia.
"There is substantially less debt available and fewer providers of finance," he said.
"Consequently, only well established developers and high-quality developments are being financed, the demand for top-up equity finance is high and the short supply of such equity finance means attractive terms can be negotiated with developers."
The new fund aims to benefit from this situation. It will focus on property development and trading opportunities with development partners in Sydney and Melbourne, predominantly in the metropolitan residential sector.
Denison expects to launch more funds later this year.
"By December, we want to have four products that we will be marketing," he said.
