Aviva Investors has changed the pricing on its £2bn Property Trust in an attempt to stem outflows as it has struggled to match sellers with buyers.
The asset manager yesterday switched the fund from an offer-price basis to an bid-price basis.
Property funds tend to have a large difference between the two prices, the dealing spread, which is around 5.65 per cent on the Aviva fund.
The long-standing manager of the fund, Philip Nell, departed the firm in May and was replaced by Mike Luscombe.
Data from FE Analytics shows the size of the fund rose steadily through this year, to the end of May, but no data is available on outflows since then.
In a statement, the group said: “The fund has recently experienced fewer inflows than outflows and as a result it has not been possible to match sellers coming out with buyers going in.”
In October 2013, the firm changed the pricing on the fund from bid to offer, which resulted in an immediate 5 per cent increase in the value of the trust, as inflows surged into the fund.
Property funds have regularly topped sales charts through 2014 and 2015, but flows have reversed for the Aviva fund recently.
Aviva said: “Once we experience sustained positive cash flows into the fund we will move the fund back to an offer price basis.”
