In profile: Jason Huljich, CEO of Centuria Property Funds
Jason Huljich, CEO of Centuria Property Funds, talks about investments, the industry and his love for the iPad 2
How long have you been in the industry?
I have been in the property industry for 16 years. I moved over from New Zealand in 1996 when I finished university in Auckland and worked for a Sydney-based developer. I then worked for a property consultancy specialising in work outs of problem property for banks. This was invaluable experience and really taught me how to work through problems by being creative to come up with solutions. I then formed Century Funds Management with my business partner in 1999. We bought two other unlisted property fund managers over the next 10 years and grew it into what is now the ASX-listed Centuria Capital with over $2 billion in funds under management.
We are seeing a strong pick-up in demand for our unlisted property funds from high-net-worth investors and the wealth management platforms. Low-term deposit rates and stock market volatility means investors are looking at other investment sectors. There are currently some fantastic investment opportunities in CBD locations showing strong yields and excellent potential for capital gains.
Describe the most interesting property development or transaction you have been involved in.We have been involved in many interesting investments, however the ones I most enjoy are the investments that evolve over time. We have had a number of investments where we purchased as fully leased commercial office buildings that returned strong distributions to investors. Over time we were then able to change the use of these properties to residential development sites and worked up development applications for medium/high-density housing. These have been some of our best-performing investments.
What are the ingredients to being successful in your job?The key ingredients are patience, being able to problem solve, taking calculated risks where necessary and building strong industry relationships. Your integrity and reputation are extremely important and if you treat someone badly the whole market will find out.
What aspects of your role do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy working with our motivated staff. We have a great team of hard-working, ambitious employees, and we work well together. We are large enough to attract some fantastic people but small enough to be dynamic and not to have to endure any petty politics.
Where would invest a spare $750,000?I would invest this in our next property fund. The opportunities we are seeing in the market are the best I have seen for 15 years.
Which football team do you support?Being from NZ, I support the All Blacks and this has been very enjoyable over the last few years. In the NRL I support the Warriors, which hasn’t been so enjoyable.
What’s your favourite app or techno gadget?My favourite gadget us my iPad 2. It is fantastic for travelling and in my role I travel a lot.
How do you use social media?This is a work in progress for us. As a business we have struggled to find ways to utilise social media effectively. Our core investor base are high-net-worth investors who are usually 50 years plus. To date we haven’t found a way to use Twitter or Facebook that helps our clients and brings us in business. We do have a terrific online portal that we have developed from scratch that allows our clients to manage all of their investments, distributions and communications however integrating this with social media has been challenging.
Jason Huljich: LinkedIn profile