Interest rates weigh on US real estate

ONE look at the lacklustre gains of real estate mutual funds this year might give the impression that commercial property owners are struggling through a relapse of their post-financial crisis woes.

But demand for office, retail and other commercial real estate has been steadily improving along with the economy, boosting occupancy and rental rates for many owners. And many economists project more of the same next year.

Even so, a surge in interest rates and concern they could increase further next year has spooked investors, dampening the funds' returns. Real estate sector equity funds have delivered an average total return of 1.93 per cent so far this year, trailing only precious metals equity funds, according to Morningstar.

The funds, which are often comprised largely of real estate investment trusts holding commercial properties, are still up an average of nearly 6.1 percent from a year ago and have delivered an annualised return of 19.3 percent over the past five years.

Still, the slide in real estate funds represents a buying opportunity for investors who think that the market has already factored in a further rise in interest rates.

"REITs are finally looking fairly valued," said Abby Woodham, fund analyst at Morningstar.

"They could, of course, go down further, but the valuation is much more attractive now than it has been for quite some time, so it's not all doom and gloom."

What remains to be seen is how the market weighs the positive growth trends in commercial real estate against the risk of interest rates rising further.

Interest rates began rising in May on speculation that the Federal Reserve was preparing to pull back on its economic stimulus, which includes $US85 billion ($A93.41 billion) in monthly bond purchases to keep interest rates low.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose from 1.63 per cent at the start of May to nearly 3 per cent by early September.

But the central bank surprised investors in mid-September when it said that it wanted to see more evidence of improvement in the economy, and it decided to maintain its bond purchases.

The central bank meets again in December, but most economists don't expect any changes in the bond program until March. The yield on the 10-year Treasury ended trading at 2.75 per cent on Friday.

Real estate funds tend to be popular among investors looking to diversify their portfolio with holdings that traditionally are not tied to the performance of the stock market.

REITs are attractive to investors seeking high yields because their tax structure requires them to pay out most of their income as distributions to shareholders.

But REITs also require a lot of money to operate. When interest rates rise, that drives the cost of borrowing up, which could translate into smaller dividends.

In addition, if Treasury pay higher interest rates, that makes REITs relatively less attractive to investors.

Still, as an industry, the outlook on commercial real estate remains positive. The National Association of Realtors projects a modest decline in the vacancy rate, and gains in average rents next year for apartments, as well as office, retail and industrial space.

That should benefit commercial property owners, though a further rise in interest rates could hurt property owners who tend to lock in tenants for leases of a decade or longer, such as medical labs. They have less flexibility to adjust pricing.

On the other end of the spectrum, REITs that own hotels, self-storage facilities and apartments typically rent out space for periods of a year or less and have the most flexibility to adjust prices.

The most liquid way to invest in the publicly traded commercial real estate market is through US exchange-traded funds, which are comprised entirely of REITs.

Woodham recommends Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ). Its index is one of the broadest, with about 120 REITs. And it's among the most affordable, charging an expense ratio of 0.1 percent.

She also likes Schwab US REIT ETF (SCHH). It holds more than 80 REITs and is the cheapest among the exchange traded funds with an expense ratio of .07 per cent.

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Investors troubled by debt debate: Hockey

FEDERAL Treasurer Joe Hockey has again warned Labor that international investor confidence in Australia is being damaged by its opposition to lifting the debt ceiling.

The government wants to increase the ceiling by $200 billion to $500 billion but Labor and the Australian Greens have joined forces in the Senate against the bill that is listed for debate on Tuesday.

The legislation was returned to the upper house after Mr Hockey rejected a Labor and Greens amendment proposed two weeks ago to limit the increase to $100 billion, for a cap of $400 billion.

The Greens later said they were prepared to discuss scrapping the ceiling altogether, as long as there was greater government transparency on what additional debt was used for.

While the government considers its position, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been challenged on how his conservative coalition could negotiate with a party he describes as "economic fringe dwellers".

"Our challenge as a government is to clean up Labor's mess," he told reporters on Monday.

"Part of cleaning up Labor's mess is to avoid the sort of problem which the United States had recently because they were running up against legislated debt ceilings."

Mr Hockey told parliament he had taken phone calls from international investors and global rating agencies concerned about Australia reaching its current $300 billion debt limit by December 12.

As of Friday, government debt subject to the ceiling stood at $296.09 billion.

Mr Hockey said the former Labor government had budgeted for a debt peak of $370 billion but it didn't take into account the need for a $60 billion buffer in case of an emergency.

"This is unprecedented territory," he said.

"If the Labor party is going to prevent us from trying to fix the problem they created they will wear this."

Greens leader Christine Milne rejects the government's depiction of the stalemate as threatening the economy and confidence.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten warned that the government was asking the Greens to give it a "blank cheque" to increase debt.

"These guys are desperate to do whatever they want, regardless of the consequences," he said.

Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson recently told a senate committee one option was to scrap the debt ceiling, introduced by Labor in 2008.

Nationals senator John Williams backs scrapping the ceiling.

"We don't want to go down the road of America where we're having a deadlock of actually keeping our public sector going," he said.

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PM defends work of intelligence agencies

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended Australia's intelligence agencies. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has defended Australia's intelligence agencies, saying their gathering of telephone and email metadata is within the law.

Documents leaked by fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by Guardian Australia show the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) discuss sharing "medical, legal or religious information" with foreign intelligence partners.

The DSD told US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand at a 2008 intelligence conference it could share material without some of the privacy restraints imposed in other countries.

In response to the leak, Mr Abbott said he was confident Australian intelligence agencies were acting within the law and that there were proper safeguards.

"We as an Australian government ... will always act to safeguard our national interest and to protect our citizens," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"Our security organisations will always act in accordance with the law and they will always act with appropriate safeguards in place."

Mr Abbott was unaware of any illegality, saying if anyone had evidence to the contrary they should come forward.

The DSD, now the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), suggested it could share "bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata as long as there is no intent to target an Australian national", according to the material leaked by Mr Snowden.

Metadata is information kept by telecommunications groups - like phone numbers, email addresses, and the dates, times, locations and duration of calls - but not their content.

AAP understands neither ASD nor the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) collects or shares metadata in bulk.

But some specific metadata is shared in investigations involving overseas agencies.

ASIO's metadata collection is in line with ministerial instructions and subject to internal checks, and it doesn't require a warrant to access the information from a telco.

If ASIO wanted to investigate the actual content, it requires a warrant from the Attorney-General.

ASD collects specific foreign intelligence metadata.

It can access information on Australian citizens if it has a "ministerial authorisation" and this would be signed off by the Attorney-General.

Authorisations have been granted in the past in relation to communications between terrorist organisations and Australians.

Australia's intelligence agencies are overseen by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and a federal parliamentary committee.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the documents cited by the Guardian "do not report or record any activity by any Australian intelligence agency".

The Australian Greens want an inquiry to reassure the public they are not being spied on.

"Last week and the week before there were revelations about spying on heads of state. This week, it is about everybody else, the rest of us," Greens senator Scott Ludlam said.

ASIO director-general David Irvine told a recent Senate estimates hearing the Snowden leaks were of "great concern".

The agency has conducted an audit of intelligence it has shared with foreign agencies to assess what sort of material Mr Snowden might have.

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Demolition of NZ cathedral to go ahead

A GROUP fighting to stop the partial demolition of the quake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral has lost its battle.

The Supreme Court denied the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust leave to appeal against the deconstruction of the landmark that was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.

The Supreme Court also ordered the group pay $NZ2500 ($A2,256) costs to the Church Property Trustees, which is overseeing the deconstruction of the Anglican cathedral, in a decision released on Monday.

The group believes demolishing the cathedral is detrimental to the recovery of Christchurch.

The Supreme Court said it acknowledged the circumstances which prompted the appeal were of great general importance to Christchurch residents.

"That importance arises from the history, function and iconic nature of the Cathedral.

"However, in this case nothing that has been raised on behalf of the applicant reaches the threshold of showing that the decisions of the courts below may be in error."

The group's bid was previously thrown out by the Court of Appeal and High Court, though it has been established that there must be a cathedral on the site.

In May, the Anglican church said over half of the more than 3700 submissions on three options for the future of the cathedral favoured a contemporary design which church leaders also backed.

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PM stands by election schools promise

PM Tony Abbott has denied the government is breaking its pre-election schools funding promise. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott insists the government will keep the promise it made on school funding before the election - not the promise some people think it made.

But the Opposition's education spokeswoman Kate Ellis says that's just "clever words".

And she hasn't ruled out backing any industrial action by teachers angry at the coalition reneging on school funding deals struck between the former Labor government and a majority of the states and territories.

Before the September election, the coalition said schools would receive the same amount of funding as under the so-called Gonski model.

"We are going to keep the promise that we made, not the promise that some people thought we made or the promise that some people would like us to make. We are going to keep the promise that we actually made," Mr Abbott told Network Ten on Sunday.

The prime minister refused to repeat the promise word for word, but said schools will get "the same quantum of funding over the four years that they would have under Labor".

The coalition will fund schools as planned for 2014 before introducing a new scheme from 2015, which Education Minister Christopher Pyne is trying to nut out with state and territory counterparts.

Labor says the coalition is making excuses.

"The government is clearly determined to break their word - that's what's happening," Labor senator Penny Wong told ABC TV.

"They aren't the government they said they'd be before the election."

Ms Ellis says there's no way the government can justify its move.

"A promise is a promise," she told Network Ten.

"They were very specific in their words before the election ... a promise they have now walked away from."

Ms Ellis said teachers and parents across Australia had a right to be angry about the government's decision and didn't rule out backing industrial action.

"I would certainly support ... us fighting to make sure these huge and important reforms are not tossed aside," she said.

State and territory leaders will get the chance to eyeball the prime minister about school funding at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on December 13.

"It will absolutely be an agenda item," Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said on Sunday.

"This Gonski reform is one of the top issues."

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, who faces a state election in 2014, said the school funding issue may filter through to be an influencing factor.

"(The government) know that they can't be seen to break a promise so that's why they're pretending that they haven't broken a promise," Mr Weatherill said.

The Australian Education Union accused the prime minister of spinning a line on school funding.

"No school worse off over four years, promised Tony Abbott," Union deputy president Correna Haythorpe said in a statement.

"It's an insult to parents and teachers to hear the prime minister now say that this clear, unambiguous commitment from the Coalition is something 'some people' thought he said, or 'some people' would like him to have said."

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Political violence shakes Thai capital

One protester has been killed after an attack on a bus carrying government's supporters in Bangkok. Source: AAP

THAI police fired tear gas and a water cannon at protesters trying to force their way into Government House to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, after violence in the capital left two dead and dozens wounded.

The bloodshed is the latest in a series of outbreaks of civil strife in the kingdom since royalist generals ousted billionaire tycoon-turned-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, seven years ago.

The mass street rallies, aimed at replacing Yingluck's government with an unelected "people's council", are the biggest since political violence in Bangkok three years ago left dozens dead in a military crackdown.

Protesters were amassing outside Government House on Sunday following a threat by their leader to seize the offices of Yingluck, who was overseeing the situation from an emergency base elsewhere in the city.

Police acted after protesters tried to breach barricades and cut barbed wire protecting the seat of government, which was heavily guarded by security forces including unarmed soldiers, according to an AFP reporter.

Tear gas was also fired near the city's metropolitan police headquarters several kilometres away where demonstrators were also gathering, television footage showed.

Tensions were high after violence broke out late Saturday in the area around a suburban stadium where tens of thousands of pro-government "Red Shirts" had gathered in support of Yingluck, who has faced weeks of street protests.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths were unclear but the violence came after an anti-government mob attacked Red Shirts arriving to join the rally in Ramkhamhaeng district.

"The confirmed toll is now two dead and 45 injured," an official at the city's Erawan emergency centre told AFP, amid reports of sporadic outbreaks of violence near the stadium on Sunday morning.

They were the first deaths since the mostly peaceful demonstrations began a month ago. Both sides blamed each other for attacking their supporters.

The violence prompted Red Shirt leaders to end their rally, which had drawn tens of thousands of mainly rural poor in support of Yingluck and her brother Thaksin, who lives in self-imposed exile but remains a hugely divisive figure in Thailand.

"In order to avoid further complicating the situation for the government, we have decided to let people return home," Red Shirt leader Thida Thavornseth told the crowd.

Authorities are deploying more than 2,700 troops to reinforce security in Bangkok, the first time a significant number of soldiers have been deployed to cope with the unrest.

Protests were triggered by an amnesty bill, since abandoned by the ruling party, that opponents feared would have allowed the return of fugitive former premier Thaksin, whose overthrow by royalist generals in 2006 unleashed years of political turmoil.

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Call to benchmark drugs to overseas costs

A THINK tank has called on the federal government to benchmark local drug prices with those paid overseas to drive down the cost to local consumers.

The Grattan Institute says the government's "price disclosure" system has failed to lower prices in Australia, which are on average 14 times higher than in the UK.

The price disclosure system takes note of the discounts manufacturers and wholesalers offer pharmacies, and cuts prices accordingly.

However, the Grattan Institute says Australians still paid significantly higher prices than people in the UK, New Zealand and Canada.

"On average, Australian prices remain almost 16 times higher than the best price in these three places," a new report from the think tank said.

Grattan Institute director Stephen Duckett said price disclosure was working, "but it is not working well enough".

Instead, he said the government should benchmark Australian prices against international drug prices.

"In the end, what's happening is the prices that the Australian government is paying are way above what comparable countries pay," Dr Duckett told AAP.

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Flume, Sebastian early winners at ARIAs

ELECTRONIC wunderkind Flume has taken out his first ARIA award after being named Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

The 22-year-old producer/remixer, whose real name is Harley Streten, is up for six more awards on Sunday night.

"Jesus. Wow. Thank you," he said as he accepted the award.

"It's kind of funny that this Flume thing started as a house project.

"I never thought much of it. It wasn't until Chris, my friend, he suggested that I sign onto future classic and I did that and it's kind of taken off and it's been a whirlwind."

Guy Sebastian won best pop release for his album Armageddon, outgunning Empire Of The Sun, San Cisco, The Preatures and Vance Joy.

Sebastian missed out on picking up the award as he was running late but it was reannounced later so he could accept it.

He thanked his pregnant wife Jules and son Hudson who he said had inspired him.

"(This award) is very unexpected. I can say that because I think I've been nominated for twenty something (awards) and I haven't won yet and here I am," he said.

Five piece Perth band Karnivool won Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album with Asymmetry.

"First up thanks aria for the 'bogan' award," guitarist and founding member Andrew Goddard said.

"There's a lot more to heavy music ... it can even be intellectual, believe it or not.

"Let's face it it's the best f***ing genre here tonight."

Veterans Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' album Push The Sky Away took out the award for Best Adult Contemporary Album, just moments after it was named Best Independent Release.

Cave, who wasn't in Australia to receive the award, accepted the gongs via video.

Country crooners Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson have won the award for Country Album at the ARIA awards in Sydney.

The duo, who have released two number one albums, took out the award with one of them, Wreck and Ruin, a warts-and-all look at married life.

The couple is no longer together.

Asked if it was a breakup album, he said: "If it is, it was some kind of fortune telling, like a future ... I find I don't really listen to albums once they're made but I've gone back and heard this record since... And that did occur to me.

"There were so many moments on that record that were signalling things that came further down the road."

X Factor winner Samantha Jade won best video for Firestarter.

"I'm shaking wow. This is very unexpected," she said.

"The video was classic. It was black and white... I guess that connected with people."

Best Blues and Roots Album was won by Sharkmouth by Russell Morris, who said he felt like "Moses coming out of the wilderness" with his first ARIA award.

He accepted the award in memory of his mother Helen.

Seventies soft rockers Air Supply were inducted to the ARIA Hall of Fame received a lifetime achievement award.

Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock thanked everyone who knocked their "drippy love songs".

"Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart," Lead guitarist Graham Russell said.

"Without you we never would have learned how to get up and fight back."

The audience was played a video montage tribute to the duo behind the hits lost In Love and All Out Of Love.

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US, Russia throw weight behind Syria talks

The US and Russia have thrown their full weight behind Syrian peace talks set for January 22. Source: AAP

THE US and Russia have thrown their full weight behind long-delayed Syria peace talks that the UN says finally would be held on January 22, though it is not yet clear whether key sponsors of the warring sides would attend.

"We haven't established a list yet," UN and Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Monday.

That left open the participation of Saudi Arabia, seen as a major sponsor the majority Sunni Muslim rebels, and Iran, steadfast backer of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad which is dominated by Alawites derived from Islam's Shi'ite sect.

"These two countries will certainly be among the possible participants," Brahimi said after closed-door talks in Geneva with US and Russian officials.

The talks will bring together the Syrian government and the opposition at the negotiating table for the first time since the rebellion against Assad erupted in March 2011.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced the date for the long-delayed conference on Syria dubbed Geneva II at the UN headquarters in New York.

"At long last and for the first time, the Syrian government and opposition will meet at the negotiating table instead of the battlefield," Ban told reporters.

"The fighting has raged on far too long - with more than 100,000 dead, almost nine million driven from their homes, countless missing and detained, and terrible violations of human rights," Ban said, calling the war the "biggest threat to international peace".

The US, which has long urged Assad to step down, called the upcoming talks the "best opportunity" to form a new transitional government to lead Syria out of war.

"In order to end the bloodshed and give the Syrian people a chance to meet their long-deferred aspirations, Syria needs new leadership," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

He said he recognised "that the obstacles on the road to a political solution are many, and we will enter the Geneva conference on Syria with our eyes wide open".

Russia, which broadly supports the survival of Assad's regime, also underlined the importance of the talks.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a 35-minute audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican during which both men discussed the urgent need "to promote concrete initiatives for a peaceful solution to the conflict, favouring negotiation", the Holy See said.

They agreed any solution should involve "the various ethnic and religious groups, recognising their essential role in society", it said in a statement.

Kerry has been working with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to organise the peace talks with the UN since May.

White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters travelling with President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One that "we'll necessarily need to end (Geneva) with Assad leaving power".

Brahimi, meanwhile, said the country's warring sides should not wait until January 22 to rein in fighting.

"We very strongly appeal to the Syrian government and the opposition to not to wait for the conference," he said, urging the sides to "diminish the violence (and) release prisoners and detainees of all sorts".

He admitted though, "being realistic", that "a lot of the things that need to happen will happen after the conference starts".

Brahimi said the conference would start "without any preconditions".

The opposition Syrian National Coalition has agreed to attend, but its authority is not recognised by Islamist rebel groups that are proving the most effective on the battlefield.

Brahimi said the opposition coalition had a "very important role to play" and had to be "as representative as possible" for the talks to work.

"We are in touch both with the government and the opposition. We are asking them to name their delegations as early as possible, hopefully before the end of the year," said the Algerian mediator, who previously was UN envoy for Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This conference is really for the Syrians to come to Geneva and talk to one another and hopefully start a credible, workable effective peace process for their country."

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Mining boom waste will haunt PM: Windsor

Former MP Tony Windsor (pic) says mismanagement of the mining boom will return to haunt Tony Abbott. Source: AAP

RETIRED MP Tony Windsor says Howard-era mismanagement of the mining boom will return to haunt Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The former key federal independent has backed a union report's calls for a sovereign wealth fund to help share the benefits of the resources industry among more Australians.

Mr Windsor launched the report, commissioned by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, at an event in Sydney on Tuesday.

The report found that although the resources boom had helped shelter Australia from the worst of the global financial crisis, governments had "squandered" a chance to efficiently share its profits.

It argued Norway had done a better job of maximising the permanent gains from oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

The report called for Australia to follow the Norwegian model and establish an Australia Development Fund to use some of the proceeds of resources development for long-term projects.

Mr Windsor said it was a sensible approach.

"During the Howard years we really didn't take advantage of the boom, we created a lot of middle-class welfare," Mr Howard said.

"I think a lot of people are aware now that you can't just go through boom cycles, issue currency to the community, and then when the bust comes - and Abbott's going to face this exact problem ... it's very difficult to take it back.

"The concept of a fund is that it does take advantage of the good times and smooth out the ripples."

The report found that the thriving resources sector had boosted jobs but the fly-in fly-out (FIFO) nature of much of the employment did not help mining towns.

It did however increase cost-of-living pressures for the towns' permanent communities.

And the share of income going to employee compensation has declined over the past 20 years, the report found, from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.

CFMEU president Tony Maher said the profits from Australia's mining boom had largely been exported.

"Too much has gone into the pockets of shareholders and management, overwhelmingly based overseas, and too little to the Australian community that owns the resources," he said.

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