Schroder Emerging Retail Property Unit Trust (Serput) has emerged as the top-performing property fund over both one- and three-year periods in the influential IPD monthly index.
The retail property fund, which targets convenience, has outperformed more than 60 other property vehicles with a return of 23.6 per cent for the year to March.
Serput was launched five years ago with the specific aim of capitalising on moves into the convenience-store market by major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. Since then, it has grown fromÂŁ65 million toÂŁ109 million.
Serput fund director Tony Brown saidÂŁ10 million has been raised from eight new investors in recent weeks.
This has already been invested in assets such as the Hebburn Shopping Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was bought forÂŁ4.4 million to show an equivalent yield of 8.9 per cent. Meanwhile, 81/107 Crockhamwell Road at Woodley, Reading, has been bought forÂŁ7.8 million to show a 7.2 per cent equivalent yield.
Brown believes that demographic factors, such as the surge in single-person households, will continue to drive rental growth in the convenience sector, especially in London and the Southeast.
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