After a period of risk aversion, financial planners are now turning back towards the property market, according to the general manager of property, mortgages and capital markets at Australian Unity Investments (AUI) Mark Pratt.
"[Clients] are now coming in saying, 'well should I really be leaving my money in cash?' So the door's a little bit open for a planner to have that conversation," Mr Pratt said.
"Before it was, 'I'm too scared to have my money anywhere other than cash'."
Mr Pratt said that the spread between returns on cash and returns on well-managed property funds would mean that the unlisted property sector would continue to provide good outcomes for investors throughout 2013.
He added that investors looking for yield are starting to come back to the property market.
"From a capital perspective, we think that commercial property stands up and continues to stand up. Depending on whether the cash rate drops below the current three per cent, term deposits are likely to return between 3.2 and 4.2 per cent, while good quality unlisted property funds can provide an income return around eight per cent in the coming year," he said.
"On a risk-adjusted basis, unlisted property is an ideal asset class for those investors seeking yield, yet also concerned about their capital stability.
"Last year I said that at some point ... the spread between what people can get risk-free and what they can get by taking some risk, had to get to a bit of a tipping point. I think that point has come."
Mr Pratt added that people approaching retirement wanted to reclaim some of the money they may have lost over the years.
"I think that will also bring retail investors back to the market," he said.
Meanwhile, Chris Smith, head of healthcare and retirement property funds at AUI, said the past year had seen a steady influx of investors.
"Our own [healthcare] trust over the last 12 months has seen a fairly steady flow of investor applications," he said.
"Investors [are] seeking good, solid, reliable income, capital stability and plain vanilla trusts in growth sectors."
Mr Smith added that investors in the healthcare sector had continued to enjoy long-term leases, with equally long-term, stable income.
