News

The rapid growth of Australia’s private credit sector has outpaced investor understanding of the asset class, creating a gap between rising participation and a deeper appreciation of the risks, opportunities, and structural differences that distinguish high-quality strategies from the rest of the market, according to real estate private credit investment manager, Zagga.

Celebrating its nine-year anniversary this month, Zagga has grown from its initial 30 investors, to $40 million AUM and $60 million deployed in its first year, and is now on track to close the financial year with ~$1 billion in new originations, with ~$3 billion invested across more than 350 transactions in the Australian real estate sector. Its investor base now exceeds 1,000 entities, globally.

To mark the milestone occasion, and address the education gap, Zagga has launched an educational whitepaper series spotlighting real estate private credit and homing in on the topics that are keeping investors up at night.

As we mark our ninth year, we reflect on a simple proposition that has guided us since inception: invest conservatively, back real assets, protect capital, and deliver consistent returns – and do it with trust, transparency, integrity, and a focus on execution at the core of everything we do.

While Zagga is nine years young, the experience within the business spans multiple cycles and decades of market activity dating back to the 1960s. Since inception, we have navigated COVID, rate reductions and increases, regulatory changes, labour pressures, and now tax changes and geopolitical uncertainty. Through all this, we have unwaveringly honoured our commitments to investors and borrowers alike.

For the past two decades, generous tax concessions encouraged continued investment. The approach was straightforward: borrow, hold, negatively gear, benefit from the CGT discount on the eventual sale. However, the recent Budget announcement has disrupted each element of this tried-and-tested equation.

And, while properties held before Budget night on 12 May 2026 are exempt, this tax overhaul has many Australian investors reconsidering their investment strategies and rethinking their exposure to property.

For many investors, volatility has become the new norm. Persistent market fluctuations, ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and rising correlation between equities and listed fixed income have contributed to a more challenging environment for growth-oriented strategies and portfolio risk management. Traditional portfolio construction is under increasing strain.

The recent Federal Budget reforms to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and negative gearing add further pressure.

In an environment of constant volatility, uncertainty, and unpredictability, investment dynamics are changing, demanding a rethink of traditional portfolio construction and wealth creation strategies. Income, realised gains, and alternative assets are firmly in focus.

As investors seek clarity in an increasingly uncertain environment, attention is turning to asset classes capable of delivering consistent income. Where can it be found—and is real estate private credit part of the answer?

Heightened geopolitical tension, persistent inflation and rising interest rates have combined to create one of the more challenging investment environments in recent memory. Traditional risk assets have repriced sharply, while even historically defensive allocations such as government bonds have exhibited unexpected volatility.

In this context, investors, particularly self-managed super funds, family offices and sophisticated allocators, are reassessing portfolio construction with a renewed focus on capital preservation and dependable income.