Decision-making in the management of property investment by Australian superannuation funds

© The Author(s) 2018. Decision-making in property investment by superannuation funds is an important investment decision, but it is different to their decision-making on other asset classes included in their asset portfolios. The large value and heterogeneous nature of individual pieces of real estate make the market for real estate relatively illiquid and subject to larger transaction costs than other asset classes. Based on interview surveys of Australian superannuation funds, using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP), we identified strategic decision-making as being the most important factor used by the superannuation funds when making decisions on the management of their property investment portfolio. Comments during the interviews indicated that their decisions were influenced by restrictions in their fund’s investment mandate and the level of funds that they had to invest. The AHP technique has allowed this research to provide a more in-depth understanding of the management of decision-making factors than previous surveys