General commercial property comes in various classes including:
- Retail - which is typically shopping centres, bulky goods centres, retail shopping strips and other shopping-related real estate
- Industrial - which is typically warehouses, factories and industrial parks
- Office - office accommodation of white collar workers in large to medium scale office buildings and parks, generally in and around major cities
- Hotel/Leisure - properties generally providing accommodation for overnight stays in major cities or leisure assets such as theme parks
- Specialist use property - these investments include child and aged care, hospitals, private medical centres, and storage facilities & student accommodation.
- Development assets - this includes development of new properties in asset classes mentioned above including the provision of land for commercial and residential sub division.
Individual investors have a number of choices to access the commercial property investment markets:
- Buy directly, however the cost of commercial assets can often be out of reach of individual
- Invest in unlisted property trusts and property syndicates
- Invest in unlisted and listed property securities funds
- Buy shares in listed property trusts (LPTs), which are listed on the ASX
Buy shares listed on the ASX in companies in the property sector